

















































I 


COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT 












THE 




BIBLE AGAINST WAR? 


BY 


j 

REV. AMOS DRESSER, 

P', H OF i 


V . >-U > 
\ . 


vd ;ki. 

‘ f \ * '•« i 


111 


“Blessed are the peacemakers.”— Matt. v.S^ — 
O There never has been, nor ever will be any such 
thing as a good war or a bad peace.” 
Benjamin Franklin. 



OBERLIN. 

FRINTED FOR THE AUTHOR, 


MDCCCXLIX. 





Entered according to Act of Congress in the 
year 1849, 

BY AMOS IIKESSEK, 

In the Clerk’s Office of the District Court of Ohio. 



♦ f» 1 • 




JAMES M. FITCH, PRINTER, 
OBEULIN, OHIO. 


CONTENTS. 

Page 


Definition of war, 15 

Right state of heart necessary in order to un¬ 
derstand the Bible, IT 

Careful investigation, do., 19 

English translation, 21 

Gospel to interpret the law, 23 

Typec rf the Old Testament prefigure peace, 24 
I'K '"' applied to the Messiah, do. 25 

j .opl cts foretell a reign of peace, 26 

Reign of Christ a reign of peace, 30 

The Apostles commissioned to preach peace, 37 
War contrasted with the gospel, 41 

War regarded as a curse, 56 

Peace “ blessing, 57 

No distinction between offensive and defen¬ 
sive war, 59 

Canaanites destroyed as sinners against God, 59 
Jews to share the same fate for the same sins, 64 
Destruction of Jericho, 65 

« “ Ai, 07 

God promises to fight the battles if they will 
hold their peace, TO, 201 


I 

iv 

God true to his promise, 75 

Case of Hezekiah, 75 

“ Jehoshaphat, 76 

Want of faith the cause of their war, 83 

They refuse to follow the pillar of fire and 

cloud, 88 

Their constant murmurings provoke war, 88 

God promised as an Avenger, 88, 200, 207 
They that take the sword shall perish, &c. 91 

Jews chose to defend themselves, 93 

They demand a king to fight their battles, 94 

Various provocations, 96 

Reasons for their prosperity in war, 98, 111 
Case of Elisha, 103 

“ Abijah and Asa, 106 

“ Gideon, 107 

The believer and his echo, 124 

OBJECTIONS. 

Romans xiii, 126 

Roman government not appointed of God, 138 

Revolutionary war, 145 

Gibbon’s testimony of the early Christians, 187 

Christ’s instruction as to self-defense, 204 

Peter rebuked for using the sword, 206, 243 
The true meaning of Romans xiii, 223 

Christ’s example on paying tribute, 229 

Other objections, 243 


PREFACE* 


In my labors in the cause of peace for the few 
past years, I have found all, without exception, 
opposed to war. All are ready to denounce it as 
a great evil and curse to mankind. Many, very 
many, fully adopt the language of Professor Fin¬ 
ney, and say, “War is one of the most heinous 
and horrible forms of sin unless it be evidently 
demanded by and prosecuted in obedience to the 
moral law. Observe, war to be in any case a 
virtue, or to be less than a crime of infinite mag¬ 
nitude, must not only be honestly believed by 
those who engage in it, to be demanded by the law 
of benevolence, but it must also be engaged in by 
them with an eye single to the glory of God and 
the highest good of being. That war has been in 
some instances demanded by the spirit of the 
moral law there can be no reasonable doubt 
since God has sometimes commanded them.” 

a* 



I 


VI PREFACE. 

Surely no one acquainted with war could sup¬ 
pose that it could be carried on benevolently 
unless there was proof positive that God had com¬ 
manded it. This led me carefully to examine the 
Bible to see if indeed God did approve of what 
universal conscience condemns. If indeed God 
required man to do, that which he instinctively 
shrinks from with abhorrence. The result of my 
investigations I now present to the public, and 
they must judge of their worth. 

The Bible is quoted to justify defensive war. 
But if it justifies war at all, it justifies offensive 
and aggressive war, such as none at our day ap¬ 
prove. Yet most feel that self-defense is a 
privilege and duty; that great as is the evil of war, 
it is nevertheless right to fight sometimes. But 
“if it can be proved that defensive wars are 
allowable, it would be altogether useless to pur¬ 
sue the inquiry any further, because, under the 
name and pretext of defensive war, national 
contests of every description would be carried 
on. Every belligerent nation, with scarcely 
a single exception, scornfully rejects the impu¬ 
tation of being the original aggressor, and pro¬ 
fesses to prosecute its warlike measures for pur¬ 
poses of self-protection. ^.n.d so long as wo 
admit that defensive wars are allowable on Chris¬ 
tian principles, so long we grant, for all practical 


PREFACE. 


vii 


purposes, every thing which the advocates of war 
wish. The true doctrine is, that human life, both 
in its individual and corporate state, as one and 
as many, is inviolable ; that it can not be taken 
away for any purpose whatever, except by ex¬ 
plicit divine permission; and that war, in every 
shape, and for every purpose, is wrong , absolutely 
wrong , wholly wrong. Any doctrine short of this 
will fall altogether powerless and useless upon 
the broad surface of the world’s crimes and mis¬ 
eries ; it will dim the light of no sword ; it will 
wipe the tear of no widow and orphan.”— Pro¬ 
fessor Upborn, 

“Even the revelations of commerce prohibit 
war; and shall the religion of the Ledger out¬ 
weigh the religion of Jesus Christ 1 If that re¬ 
ligion will admit any defensive war, our hopes 
are extinguished forever ; for the last words of 
the author of it were, “ it is finished.” Nothing 
can be added, and nothing taken away. Let the 
human race come to this sacred volume for their 
guidance, and read its prohibitions against dll 
war. It may be imputed to fanaticism and ultra- 
ism, but it has come to this: that if the gospel 
forbids all war, then there never was, and there 
never will be, a period when its demands were 
more imperative than now. The greatest pre¬ 
rogative conferred upon us this side of heaven, is 


via 


PREFACE. 


to dwell together in love, and have God dwelling 
with us. And in view of this, the apostle ex¬ 
claimed, “That neither principalities nor powers, 
nor things present nor things to come, could sep¬ 
arate us from the love of God which is in Christ 
Jesus our Lord.” 

“ The highest demonstration of Christianity 
which a man can give is to forgive his enemies. 
Thus war makes it a capital crime to exercist 
the capital virtue of Christianity ! 

“ The whole wotld is looking to Christianity 
for the blessings of peace. The down-trodden 
millions who have been crushed uader the bur¬ 
dens of the grim Moloch of war, and are lifting 
up their lean, shrivelled hands, and crying for 
bread, are looking to us Christians, imploringly, 
to stay the awful devastations of war; that they 
may have opportunity to rise again to the dignity 
of manhood. And it is for us to remember, that 
if we perforate the great law of love, which is to 
cement and bind together in harmony all races of 
men, even with so much as a bodkin, we make a 
hole large enough to admit all the fiends of the 
pit and deluge with blood the whole face of this 
beautiful green earth .”—Elihu Burritt. 

But can it be that those who justify war under¬ 
stand what war is 1 Give a glance at its awful 
havoc of human life. It has destroyed at Dur^ 


PREFACE. 


IX 


ham, 15,000; At Agincourt, 20,000; at Bautzen 
and Lepanto, 25,000; at Austerlitz, Jena and 
Lutzen, 30.000 each; at Eylau 60,000; at Wa* 
terloo and Quatre Bras, one engagement, in fact, 
70,000; at Borodino, 80,000; at Fontenoy, 100,- 
000; at Yarmouth, 150,000; at Chalons, 300,000 
of Attilla’s army alone, Julius Csesar, in one 
engagement, slew 363,000; in another 400,000 ; 
in a third, 430,000. Jenghis Khan, in one dis¬ 
trict, butchered 1,600,000, and, in his long reign 
of more than forty years, sacrificed some 32,000,- 
000 lives ! Grecian wars are supposed to have 
destroyed 15,000,000 ; Jewish wars, 25,000,000; 
the wars of the twelve Csesars, 30,000,000 in all; 
the wars of the Roman Empire, of the Saracens 
and the Turks, 60,000,000 each; the wars of the 
Tartars, 80,000,000; those of Africa, 100,000,- 
000; during the whole history of war, no less 
according to Dr. Dick, than 14,000,000,000, or, 
according to Burke, 35,000,000,000 ! ! ”— See 
Peace Manual, 4 p. 33. 

Thus at the lowest estimate war has devoured 
more than fourteen times as many as all the inhabi¬ 
tants on the globe ! Shall the enemy devour for¬ 
ever ! And then what havoc of virtue and all 
that makes life dear! Take a single paragraph 
in the description of the sacking of Magdeburgh; 
** Neither the innocence of childhood, nor the 


X 


PREFACE. 


helplessness of old age,—neither youth, sex, rank, 
nor beauty, could disarm the fury of the conquer¬ 
ors. Wives were dishonored in the arms of their 
husbands, daughters at the feet of their parents; 
and the defenseless sex exposed to the double 
sacrifice of virtue and life. No condition, how¬ 
ever obscure, or however sacred, could afford 
protection from the rapacity of the enemy. Fif¬ 
ty-three women were found beheaded in a single 
church. The Croats amused themselves by throw¬ 
ing children into the flames ; Pappenheim’s Wal¬ 
loons with stabbing infants at their mothers’ 
breasts. Some of the officers of the League, 
horror-struck at this dreadful scene, ventured to 
remind Tilly that he had it in his power to stop 
the carnage. ‘Return in an hour,’was his an¬ 
swer, ‘ and I shall see what is to be done; the 
soldier must have some recompense for his danger 
and toil;”—Peace Manual,pp. 29, 30. 

“Stabbing infants, and throwing children into 
the flames,” is the soldier's amusement! “The sol¬ 
dier must have some recompense for his danger 
and toils!” 

Or to come nearer home and take a mere 
glimpse of some of the refinements of our late 
war with Mexico. Says a spectator : 

“ As atMatemoras, MURDER, ROBBERY, and 
RAPE were committed in the broad light of day.” 


PREFACE. 


XI 


“On arriving at Mier, we learned from indis¬ 
putable authority that outrages of the most dis¬ 
graceful character had been committed against 
the citizens ;—stealing, or rather robbing , insult¬ 
ing the women, breaking into houses, and other 
feats of a similar character ! We have heard of 
them at almost every rancho, up to this place.” 

“ The women have been repeatedly violated —(al¬ 
most an every-day affair,) houses are broken 
open, and insults of every kind have been of¬ 
fered to those whom we are bound by honor to 
protect .”—Facts for the People, pp. 109, 110, 111. 

These are but a part of the usual and necessary 
concomitants of war. Are they what God 
approves 1 

Yet no doubt many will be slow to believe that 
the wars of Joshua, David & Co. were not carried 
on with the perfect approbation of heaven. I can 
heartily sympathize with such; for the idea that 
they were thus carried on, has been instilled into 
my own mind from my youth, and there are many 
passages that seem to favor that idea: but care¬ 
ful, faithful research has fully convinced me that 
the Bible does not teach that doctrine. I know 
not that what I have written will produce the 
.same convictions in the minds of others. All I 
wish is to have each for himself diligently “search 
the scriptures,” and if I can even awaken new 


PREFACE. 


• • 

X1E 

zeal in the performance of this too much neglected 
duty and privilege, I shall feel myself amply re¬ 
warded for my labor. I have tried to arrange 
various passages so as to assist in this delightful 
work, and my prayer is that the Holy Spirit may 
accompany their perusal, and give the same satis¬ 
faction to the soul of the reader that it has to the 
compiler. I am conscious of the many imperfec¬ 
tions of the work, still I can but hope it may help 
to hasten the day when “ Righteousness and Peace 
shall kiss each other,” and nations shall learn 
war no more. That that day is approaching none 
can doubt who has carefully observed the signs of 
the times. All who have studied the wonderful 
events of the past year, in the light of God’s pre¬ 
cious promises can heartily say, 

“ There’s a good time coming, 

A good time coming: 

War in all men’s eyes shall bo 

A monster of iniquity 
In the good time coming. 

Nations shall not quarrel then, 

To prove which is the stronger; 

Nor slaughter men for glory’s sake;— 

Wait a little longer. 

The reformation has begun~ 

Wait a little longer 


THE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 


“To the law and to the testimony: if they 
speak net according” to this word, it is because 
there is no light in them .”—Isaiah viii: 20. 

“ Search the scriptures .”—John v : 39. 

Search the scriptures.” A blessed re¬ 
quirement How seldom obeyed. Many 
occasionally read the scriptures: how 
few who search them. Hence so little is 
known of their precious treasures. They 
contain choice gems not found on the 
surface, and the deeper the mine the 
more valuable the gold. Time is not lost 
in searching the scriptures. 

A 



14 


THE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 


In commenting on these passages, it 
will be my object, by example , to give 
what I consider the best method of obey¬ 
ing the text. That is to take a given 
subject, and carefully comparing passage 
with passage, find the teachings of the 
whole Bible on that point. Let us then 
search the scriptures and learn God’s will 
on the subject of war and peace. There 
are many who think God once sanctioned 
war, and urge that “ whatever may be the 
teachings of the gospel, it can not be 
denied that the Old Testament justi¬ 
fies war, and as the Bible never sanc¬ 
tions what is wrong, it follows that 
war can not be a malum in se.” Hence 
on the part of some the peace injunctions 
of the gospel are so explained as to make 
them null and void, while others reject 
the Old Testament, because, as they say, 
it does not harmonize with the New. It 
is therefore meet we should search the 
scriptures, old and new, and the soul that 
searches them panting for the knowledge 


TIIE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 


15 


of God will be fed. They testify of the 
Faithful and True Witness, and He testifies 
of war. Hear ye Him. 

DEFINITION OF WAR. 

Bv war I do not mean simply the taking 
of human life: for though it is true that 
the annihilation of capital punishment 
annihilates war, yet it is not true that to 
authorize capital punishment authorizes 
war. We find the punishment of death 
inflicted on the blasphemer, the murderer, 
the slaveholder, the incorrigibly disobe¬ 
dient child, the parent who gave his chil¬ 
dren to Moloch, [the god of war,] on the 
adulterer, the incestuous, the sodomite, 
the bestial, the wizard, the witch, the 
enticer to idolatry, the idolater, &c. See 
Lev. xx; xxiv, 11—17; Ex. xxi, 16; 
Deut. xxi, IS—21; xiii, 6, 10; xvii, 
2—5; Num. xv, 32—36, &c. But it 
would be altogether a misnomer to apply 
the term war to the execution of this 
sentence. More of this as we proceed. 


16 


THE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 


Nor do I mean by war simple self-defence. 
For whatever may be the teachings of 
Christ relative to non-resistance, impul¬ 
sive self-defence differs widely from war. 
“ Self-defence is independent of law. It 
knows no law. It springs from the tem¬ 
pestuous urgency of the moment, which 
brooks neither circumspection nor delay. 
Define it, give it law, circumscribe it by a 
code, invest it with form, refine it by 
punctilio, and it becomes the duel. And 
modern war, with its innumerable rules 
and regulations, its limitations and re¬ 
finements, is the duel of nations.” “ War 
is a public armed contest between nations 
in order to establish justice between 
them.”— Sumner. 

“A contest between nations or states 
carried on by force.”— Webster. 

Carried on according to military tac¬ 
tics, maxims and customs, under military 
discipline. This is the technical and legit¬ 
imate sense of the term war. As thus 
defined, 


THE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 


17 


DOES THE BIBLE SANCTION WAR? 

In attempting to answer this question, 
I would by way of introduction premise 
that the Bible is a faithful record of facts. 
It often records as matter of history 
what it by no means sanctions. For ex¬ 
ample, the evangelist gives a correct ac¬ 
count of the crucifixion of Christ, saying 
nothing at the time condemning it. Are 
we therefore to conclude that heaven ap¬ 
proves of this deed of infamy ? By 
wicked hands He was crucified and slain. 


MUCH DEPENDS ON THE STATE OF HEART 
FOR THE RIGHT INTERPRETATION 
OF THE BIBLE. 


The Bible is often quoted to sustain 
slavery, intemperance, licentiousness, and 
nearly every sin committed in Christen¬ 
dom ; and certain states of mind might 
possibly see a justification of these crimes 
in the passages quoted. But Christ spake 
to the Jews “ in parables because they see¬ 
ing, saw not, # * # their heart was 


18 


THE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 


waxed gross, their ears were dull of hear¬ 
ing, their eyes they had closed,” &c. 
They had no love for the truth, and the Sa¬ 
vior spake in a manner designed and calcu¬ 
lated to develop the true state of their heart 
The lover of truth, by searching, is made 
to know the mysteries of the kingdom of 
heaven. The lover of sin, by his cavil¬ 
ing, is left to bring to light that love of 
sin. Hence the tipler quotes, “ Drink no 
longer water, but a little wine for thy 
stomach’s sake, and for thine often infirmi¬ 
ties.” The slaveholder or his apologist 
with an air of triumph repeats, “ Of them 
shall ye buy bondmen and bondmaids, 
and they shall be your possession for¬ 
ever !” The lover of war brandishes his 
sword as he gives you his authority for its 
use, by quoting, “ thou shalt smite them, 
and utterly destroy them.” So Saul 
“ verily thought he ought to do many 
things contrary to the name of Jesus of 
Nazareth.” But the difficulty was in his 
persecuting heart.. The scales fell from 


THE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 19 

his eyes, the moment love entered his 
heart. When converted , he opened and 
alleged from scripture, that Jesus was the 
Christ. The same book which before de¬ 
clared the “ Nazarene ” to be an im¬ 
poster, is now full of the proof of his 
Messiahship. Was the blame in the 
book, or in the heart that interpreted it? 
As a man thinketh in his heart , so is he. 
Yet at the same time it is cheerfully ad¬ 
mitted that there are 

PASSAGES NOT EASILY UNDERSTOOD WITHOUT 
CAREFUL EXAMINATION. 

For example, Deut. vii, 2, reads, 
“Thou shalt smite them and utterly de¬ 
stroy them, thou shalt make no covenant 
with them, nor show mercy unto them , 
which appears to be directly at variance 
with Luke vi, 27—36, “ Love your ene¬ 
mies, do good to them which hate you, 
bless them which curse you, and pray for 
them which despitefully use you and per¬ 
secute you. * # Be ye therefore 

merciful , as your Father also is merciful.” 


20 


THE BIBLE AGAINST WAR, 


So in Deut. xvii, 14, 15, the Lord 
directs, “ When thou art come into the 
land which the Lord thy God giveth 
thee, and shall possess it, and shalt dwell 
therein, and shalt say, ‘ I will set a king 
over me like as all the nations that are 
about me,’ thou shalt in any wise set him 
king over thee whom the Lord thy God 
shall choose ,” &c. And when the time 
comes, and a king is demanded, Jehovah 
selects the man, and directs the prophet 
to anoint him, (see 1 Sam. viii and ix,) 
yet in Ilosea xiii, 11, He says, “I gave 
thee a king in mine anger, and took him 
away in my wrath.” Again in Deut. 
xxiv, 1—4, instructions are given for 
“ putting away” wives, yet in Maiachi 
ii, 16, God saith “ He hateth putting 
away,” and in Matthew v, 32, Christ 
forbids it “ saving for the cause of forni¬ 
cation.” In Mark x, 2—12, a full ex¬ 
planation is given. These cases will 
serve to show the importance of careful 
investigation. • 


THE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 


21 


ENGLISH TRANSLATION. 

Especially is this true of our English 
translation. Far be it from me to do 
anything to prejudice the mind against 
our valuable translation. Yet ihz trans¬ 
lators were uninspired men , liable to 
err. They had not the light upon ma¬ 
ny moral subjects, by which to inter¬ 
pret various passages, nor had they the 
advantages for ascertaining the true 
meaning, which now, in the progress of 
literature and science, every where 
abound. It is therefore by no means ar¬ 
rogant to suppose that improvements may 
be made. For illustration, I will cite only 
one case out of the many that might be 
mentioned. Mat. xx, 23. (See context.) 
“ To sit on my right hand and on on my 
left is not mine to give, but it shall be 
given to them for whom it is prepared 
of my Father.” Upon which Dr. Barnes, 
in his valuable notes, makes the following 
criticism. The translation of this place 
evidently does not express the sense of 


22 


THE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 


the original. The translation expresses 
the idea that Jesus has nothing to do in 
bestowing rewards on his followers. This 
is at variance with the uniform testimony 
of the scriptures. Mat. xxv, 31—40. 
John v, 22. The correct translation of 
the passage would be, “To sit on my 
right hand and on my left is not mine to 
give, except to those for whom it is pre¬ 
pared of my father,” &c. 

Hence I have given what is supposed to 
be a correct translation of various passages 
where the original is more expressive than 
our present version, which, it is to be re¬ 
membered, was made at a time when w 7 ar, 
slavery, and many other gross immorali¬ 
ties were thought by the mass of the 
church to be consistent with Christianity. 
But it is not the peace man alone who 
meets with difficult passages. Nay, verily, 
it is much more difficult to “ explain 
aw T ay” the passages which teach peace 
than those which are thought to teach 
war. 


THE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 


23 


THE GOSPEL TO INTERPRET THE LAW. 

Again I premise that if in any respect 
the Old Testament apparently clashes 
with the new, in that case the gospel is 
to be our guide, as we are Christians and 
not Jews. But I say apparently , for as 
God is the author of each there can be no 
real clashing. Prof. Finney is explicit on 
this point. “ There can not be a differ¬ 
ence between the spirit of the Old and 
New Testaments, or between the spirit 
of the law and the gospel, unless God has 
changed and unless Christ has undertaken 
to make void the law through faith, which 
can not be.”— Skel. Lect. on Theol. p . 
242. 

But the gospel is denominated “ the gos¬ 
pel of peace.” Eph. vi, 15. In the New 
Testament, God is everywhere spoken of 
as a “God of Peace.” Rom. xv, 33, and 
xvi, 20. 2 Cor. xiii, 11. 1 Thess. v, 23. 

Heb. xiii, 20, &c. 


24 


THE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 


THE TYPES AND SHADOWS OF THE OLD 

TESTAMENT ALL PREFIGURE A DISPENSA¬ 
TION OF PEACE. 

For example, a palace is to be built 
for the King of kings and Lord of lords. 
It is to be hallowed by the presence of 
Jehovah, and his name is to be called 
upon it, “ that all the people of the earth 
may know that Jehovah is God. None 
else — that his name may be magni¬ 
fied forever, saying, The Lord of hosts 
is the God of Israel—a God to Israel.” 
It is to shadow forth his true char¬ 
acter, and in many particulars to fore¬ 
shadow the dispensation of the Spirit. 
Its builder, in many respects is to be a 
type of the great Architect of the gospel 
temple. In speaking of this, God says to 
David, “ Thou hast shed blood abund¬ 
antly, and made great wars; thou shalt 
not build a house unto mv name, because 
thou hast shed much blood upon the earth 
in my sight. Behold a son shall be born 
to thee, who shall be a man of rest; and 


TIIE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 


25 


I will give him rest from all his enemies 
round about: for his name shall be Solo¬ 
mon, and I will give peace and quietness 
unto Israel in his days. He shall build 
a house for my name ; and he shall be 
mv son, and I will be his father.”— 
1 Chron. xxii, 8—10. The meaning of 
Solomon is peace. His name shall be 
Peace! An appropriate name truly for 
the Son of the God of peace—who was 
especially “ raised up” to erect this won¬ 
derful edifice so quietly made “that there 
was neither hammer, axe, nor any tool of 
iron heard in the house while it was in 
building.” Is all this without a meaning? 

THE NAMES BY WHICH THE MESSIAH IS 
DESIGNATED IN THE OLD TESTAMENT 
SHOW THAT THE GOSPEL WAS TO BE A 
DISPENSATION OF PEACE. 

Names in the Bible are significant. 
That is, men and things are known by 
their names. Hence Prince of Peace is 
the name given by the prophets to the 
foretold Messiah. Isa. ix, 6. So in Gen. 

t 


26 


THE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 


xlix, 10, Jacob in the prophetic blessing 
of his sons says, “ The scepter shall not 
depart from Judah nor a law-giver from 
between his feet, until Shiloh come.” 
The meaning of Shiloh is “Peace Maker.” 
Hence says Scott, “ All allow that the 
Messiah was intended, who was sent 
into the world as the promised seed to be 
the “Prince of Peace” Henry translates 
it, “ That Peaceable and Prosperous One, 
or the Savior.” Though in the primary 
sense the term may apply to his making 
peace between God and man, yet it is 
equally true, that He makes peace between 
man and man. This is further evident 
from the fact that 

THE PROPHETS EVERY WHERE CHARACTER¬ 
IZE THE REIGN OF CHRIST AS A REIGN 
OF PEACE AMONG MEN. 

As for example, “He shall judge 
among the nations, and shall rebuke 
many people: and they shall beat their 
swords into plow-shares, and their spears 


THE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 


27 


into pruning hooks: nation shall not lift 
up sword against nation, neither shall 
they learn war any more.”— Isa. ii, 4. 
“ Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion: 
Shout, 0 daughter of Jerusalem: behold 
thy King cometh unto thee: He is just, 
and having salvation; lowly, and riding 
upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of 
an ass: and I will cut off the chariot 
from Ephraim, and the horse from Jerusa¬ 
lem, and the battle-bow shall be cut off: 
and he shall speak peace unto the hea¬ 
then : and his dominion shall be from sea 
to sea and from the rivers to the ends of 
the earth.”— Zee. ix, 9. “ But I will have 
mercy upon the house of Judah, and will 
save them by the Lord their God, and will 
not save them by bow, nor by sword, 
nor by battle, by horses, nor by horse¬ 
men .”—Hosea i, 7. “ And in that day 
will I make a covenant for them with 
the beasts of the field, and with the fowls 
of heaven, and with the creeping things 
of the ground : and I will break the bow 


/ 

28 THE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 

and the sword and the battle out of the 
earth, and will make them to lie down 
safely .”—Hosea ii, 18. Implying that there 
is no safety in implements of war: and to 
this the bloody history of the world says, 
Amen. 

“ Save them by the Lord, ***** 
and not by the sword.” Mark the an¬ 
tithesis. Those saved by the Lord are 
not saved by the sword. The Lord 
never appointed the sword for protection 
or safety. 

This is no ephemeral affair, for “of 
the increase of his government and peace 
there shall be no end. The zeal of 
the Lord of hosts will perform this.”— Isa. 
ix, 6—7. And yet there is no anarchy 
nor confusion, for “ With righteousness 
shall he judge th z poor, and reprove with 
equity for the meek of the earth. He 
shall smite the earth with the rod of his 
mouth, and with the breath of his lips 
shall he slay the wicked. And righteous¬ 
ness shall be the girdle of his loins, and 


THE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 


29 ' 


faithfulness the girdle of his reins. The 
wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and 
the leopard shall lie down with the kid, 
and the calf and the young lion, and the 
fading together, and a little child shall 
lead them. And the cow and the bear 
shall feed; their young ones shall lie 
down together; and the lion shall eat 
straw like the ox. And the sucking child 
shall play on the hole of the asp, and the 
weaned child shall put his hand upon the 
cockatrice’s den. They shall not hurt 
nor destroy in all my holy mountain, for 
the earth shall be full of the knowledge 
of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.” 
Isa. xi, 49. 

Here is no “ rapine, murder, and 
death.” They shall lie down safely. 
None shall hurt nor destroy. For God 
shall be their refuge and strength. 
\fj = * We are not to wait for these things 
till there are no wolves, leopards and 
lions. The power of the gospel is to be 
felt in subduing the wild and ravening 


30 


THE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 


nature of these ferocious animals. That 
this can be done is now being fully illus¬ 
trated by the happy labors of that angel 
of mercy, Miss Dix, in our prisons and 
insane hospitals. It was illustrated in the 
case of Wm. Penn—by the Moravians— 
by the early Christians. It has been illus¬ 
trated whenever and wherever Chris¬ 
tianity has been exhibited in its purity 
and power. 

THE REIGN OF CHRIST IS A REIGN OF PEACE, 

And the nations who hear his rebuke 
“ Learn war no more.” Hence the mes¬ 
sengers of heaven sent to announce his 
birth, shout Glory to God in the highest, 
and on the earth Peace. Among men , 
benevolence! The huge gates of Janus 
that for seven hundred years had been 
open to the chariot of war, now creak 
upon their rusty hinges, for all is peace. 
O, what an hour is that! The reign of 
grace has commenced, and good will 
among men is inscribed on the banner of 


THE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 


31 


the throng, as they shout “ Behold thy 
King cometh unto thee, meek, sitting 
upon an ass and a colt the foal of an ass. 
Blessed is He that cometh in the name of 
the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!” 
Then the inaugural, how sublime! “ Bless¬ 
ed are the poor in spirit; for theirs is the 
kingdom of heaven. Blessed are they 
that mourn; for they shall be comforted. 
Blessed are the meek; for they shall in¬ 
herit the earth. Blessed are they which 
do hunger and thirst after righteousness ; 
for they shall be filled. Blessed are the 
merciful; for they shall obtain mercy. 
Blessed are the pure in heart; for they 
shall see God. Blessed are the peace¬ 
makers ; for they shall be called the chil¬ 
dren of God. Blessed are they which 
are persecuted for righteousness’ sake; 
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 
Blessed are ye when men shall revile jou, 
and persecute you, and shall say all man¬ 
ner of evil against you falsely for m) 
sake. * # Think not 


22 


THE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 


that I am come to destroy the law or the 
prophets. I am not come to destroy, but 
to fulfill. The law says, thou shalt not 
murder. I say thou shalt indulge in no 
passion that leads to murder. The law 
says, an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a 
tooth. I say, resist not evil, but whoso¬ 
ever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, 
turn to him the other also. Ye have 
heard that it hath been said, thou shalt 
love thy neighbor, and hate thine enemy. 
But I say unto you, Love your enemies. 
Bless them who curse you. Do good to 
them that hate you , and pray for them 
who despitefully use you and persecute 
you, that ye may be the sons of your 
Father in heaven. For if ye love them 
that love you, what grace have ye, for 
sinners also do even the same. Be ve 
therefore merciful, as your Father also is 
merciful. Forgive and ye shall be for¬ 
given.”— Mat. v : and Luke vi: Greek. 

ENEMIES CONQUERED BY TIIE GOSPEL. 

Such are the teachings of the Lawgiver 


THE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 


33 


in the dispensation of peace. He found 
extreme cases, and his principles were 
severely tested. Did his practice corre¬ 
spond with his teachings, and did He 
succeed in subduing enmity? Yes, and 
enemies were made friends. “ While we 
were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” 
When we were enemies we were recon¬ 
ciled to God by the death of his son.” 
Rom. v, 8—10. He died for us, and in 
the agonies of death, cried, “ Father, 
forgive them.” And you that were some¬ 
time alienated, and enemies in your mind 
by wicked works, yet now hath he recon¬ 
ciled. Col. i, 21. 

Glory to God ! The plan is not a fail¬ 
ure ! By example, Christ hath shown us 
how to convert enemies into friends , and 
has left this as our peculiar work. “For 
this is grace , if a man for conscience 
toward God, endure grief, suffering 
wrongfully. For what is the honor, if 
having sinned, ye suffer for it, and take it 
patiently. But if ye suffer for doing 


34 


THE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 


good, and take it patiently, this is grace 
from God. For to this were ye 

called, because Christ also suffered for 
you , leaving you an example that ye shall 
follow his steps. [A glorious example! 
A blessed calling! O, that it were bet¬ 
ter understood, and more generally fol¬ 
lowed!] Who did no sin, neither was 
guile found in his mouth ; who when He 
was reviled, reviled not again. When 
He suffered, He threatened not, but com¬ 
mitted Himself to Him who judgeth 
righteously, who his ownself bare our 
sins in his own body to the tree, that we 
being dead to sin should live unto right¬ 
eousness, by whose stripes ye were healed. 
For ye were as sheep going astray, but are 
now returned unto the Shepherd and Keep¬ 
er of your souls.”—1 Pet. ii, 19-25.-Gree/c. 

Hence says Jesus, “ Behold I send you 
forth as sheep in the midst of wolves. 
Be ye therefore wise as serpents, and 
harmless as doves. But beware of men, 
for they will deliver you up to the coun- 


TIIE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 


35 


cils, and in their synagogues , they will 
scourge you, and ye shall be brought be¬ 
fore Rulers and Kings on my account for 
a testimony to them, and the gentiles.” 
Mat. x, 16—18. “And it shall turn to you 
you for a testimony.” Luke xxi, 13. “Be 
not at all terrified, by your adversaries, 
for unto you it is graciously given in the 

behalf of Christ not only to believe on 

%■ 

him, but also to suffer for his sake.”-P/n7. 
i, 28, 29, and thereby have a blessed op¬ 
portunity to bear testimony as to the pe¬ 
culiar power of the gospel and show that 
returning good for evil is as “ the fra¬ 
grance the bruised flower yields to him 
who tramples on it.” In these trying cir¬ 
cumstances “let your light so shine be¬ 
fore men, that they may see your good 
works, and glorify your Father in heaven. 
“ Ye shall be betrayed both by parents 
and brethren, and relatives and friends, 
and they shall put some of you to death, 
and ye shall be hated of all men for my 
name’s sake, but there shall not a hair of 


36 


THE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 


your head perish. By patient enduring 
preserve your souls .”—Luke xxi, 14—19. 
u These things I command you, that ye 
love one another. If the world hate you, 
ye know that it hated me before it hated 
you. If ye were of the world, the world 
would love its own, but because ye are 
not of the world, but I have chosen you 
out of the world, therefore the world 
hateth you. Remember the word that I 
said unto you, The servant is not greater 
than his Lord. If they have persecuted 
me , they will also perecute you. * * But 
when the Comforter is come, whom I 
will send unto you from the Father, the 
Spirit of truth who proceedeth from the 
Father, He shall testify of me. Ye also 
are to bear witness, because from the be¬ 
ginning ye are with me.” — John xv, 
17—27. “ Peace go with you. As the 
Father hath sent me, even so send I you. 
And having said this, He inspired them, 
and said, Receive ye the Holy Ghost.”— 
John xx, 21—22. 


THE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 


37 


TIIE APOSTLES SET APART TO THIS WORK 
BY SOLEMN PRAYER. 

Oh how responsible our calling, and in 
view of such responsibility, how impress¬ 
ive the ordaining prayer! “ Holy Father, 
keep, through thine own name, those 
whom thou hast given me, that they may 
be one as we are. * # I 

have given them thy word, and the world 
hath hated them , because they are not 
of the world, even as I am 1 not of the 
world. I pray not that thou shouldst 
take them out of the world, but that thou 
shouldst keep them from the evil. They 
are not of the world, even as I am not of 
the world. Consecrate them to thy truth. 
Thy word is truth. As thou hast sent 
me into the world, so have I sent them 
into the world. I consecrate myself for 
them, that they also may be consecrated 
to the truth. I pray not for these alone, 
but for them also who shall believe on 
me through their word; that they all 
may be one, as thou, Father, in me, and I 

B 


38 


THE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 


in thee, that they all may be one in us; 
that the world may believe that thou hast 
sent me. And I have given to them the 
glory which thou hast given to me, that 
they may be ^ne as we are one; I in 
them, and thou in me, that they may be 
made perfect in one, and that the world 
may know that thou hast sent me, and 
hast loved them as thou hast loved me.” 
—John xvii, 11—23. 

And then with such a trust and such 
promises, how appropriate the instruction 
of the apostle. “ Beloved, think it not 
strange concerning the fiery trials which 
are to try you, as though some strange 
thing happened to you, but rejoice in pro¬ 
portion as ye are partakers in Christ’s 
sufferings, that when his glory shall be 
revealed, ye may be glad also with ex¬ 
ceeding joy. If ye are reproached for the 

name of Christ happy are ye because the 

■■ 

Spirit of glory and of God resteth upon 
you. By them He is blasphemed, by 
you He is glorified.”—1 Peter iv, 12, &c. 


THE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 


39 


THE MISSION FULFILLED, AND THE COMMIS¬ 
SION RENEWED BY THE APOSTLES. 

Such was the light by which Jesus 
Christ illumined this dark world, and such 
the work entrusted to us. The apostles, 
true to their calling, reflected the same 
light and signed over the same commis¬ 
sion to their successors. “ The servant 
of the Lord must not fight, but be gentle 
towards all, patiently enduring evil, skill¬ 
ful in teaching, by meekness instructing 
the opposers, peradventure Cod may give 
them repentance unto the exact know¬ 
ledge of the truth, and so they shall re¬ 
cover* from the snare of the devil, having 
been led captive by him into his will.”— 
2 Tim. ii, 24—26, Greek. 

“ Recompense to no man evil for evil. 
Take special pains to do things which 

*“Recover.” Greek, “Become sober,” or 
“ awake from a drunken fit,” implying that those 
who fight become intoxicated with rage or excite¬ 
ment, and in that state are ensnared by Satan, 
and taken alive by him into his will. Can any 
thing be more expressive or truthful 1 


40 


THE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 


commend themselves to the consciences 
of all. If it be possible, so much as lieth 
in you, live peaceably with all men. 
Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves 
but father give place unto wrath, for it is 
written, avenging is mine, I will repay, 
saith the Lord. Therefore if thine ene¬ 
my hunger, feed him, and if he thirst give 
him drink, for in so doing, thou shalt heap 
coals of fire on his head. Be not over¬ 
come of evil; but overcome evil with 
good.”— Rom. xii. 17-21. “Why do ye not 
rather take wrong ? why do ye not suffer 
yourselves to be defrauded ?”—1 Cor. vi. 7. 
“ I will very gladly spend and be spent for 
you, though the more abundantly I love 
you the less I be loved.”—2 Cor. xii: 15. 
“ Even unto this present hour we both 
hunger and thirst and are naked, and are 
buffetted, and have no certain dwelling 

7 4 O 

place, and labor, working with our own 
hands. Being reviled we bless, being per¬ 
secuted we suffer it; being defamed we 
entreat; we have become as the filth of the 


THE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 


41 


world—the offscouring of all things unto 
this day.—1 Cor. iv. 11-13. “Of the 
Jews, five times received I forty stripes 
save one, thrice was I beaten with rods, 
once was I stoned,”—2 Cor. 11: 24, 25, 
says Paul, yet when at Caesar’s judg¬ 
ment seat, instead of suing for redress, 
his forgiving plea is, “ Not that I had 
ausht to accuse mv nation of.” “ So 

c %> 

also they stoned Stephen, while he, 
calling upon God, said, ‘ Lord Jesus 
receive my spirit,’ and he kneeled down 
and with a loud voice cried, ‘ Lord, lay 
not this sin to their charge,’ and when he 
had said this he fell asleep.”—Acts vii. 59, 
60. Amid a shower of stones , “ he fell 
asleep.” Ah this is grace! Do we see 
anything like it in war. 

LET US COMPARE OUR COMMISSION AND THE 
SPIRIT OF THE GOSPEL, WITH THE SOL- 
DIER’S COMMISSION AND THE SPIRIT OF WAR. 

Lord Nelson the military lawgiver of 
England’s Midshipmen says, “ There are 


42 


THE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 


three things which you are constantly to 
bear in mind, 1st. You must always im¬ 
plicitly obey orders without attempting to 
form any opinion of your own respecting 
their propriety. 2d. You must consider 
every man your enemy who speaks ill of 
your king. 3d. You must hate a French¬ 
man as you do the devil.”— P. Manual , 

p. 116 . 

Says Napoleon : “ The worse the man, 
the better the soldier,” and Lieut. Page, 
in the agonies of death— his bloody tongue 
no longer able to blaspheme —in fiendish 
exultation writes, “ We gave the Mexicans 
iiell.” This is war. And surely Lord 
Wellington was right in saying, “Men 
who have nice notions about religion have 
no business to be soldiers.” The early 
Christians were right in saying, “ lam a 
Christian , and therefore I cannot fight.” 

“ Let us now put war and Christiani¬ 
ty side by side , and see how far they 
agree. Christianity saves men ; war de¬ 
stroys them. Christianity elevates men ; 


THE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 


43 


war debases and degrades them. Chris¬ 
tianity purifies men ; war corrupts and 
defdes them. Christianity blesses men ; 
war curses them. The gospel says, thou 
shalt not kill: war says, thou shalt kill. 
The gospel says, blessed are the peace¬ 
makers ; war says, blessed are the war- 
makers. The gospel says, love your en¬ 
emies ; war says, hate them, The gos¬ 
pel says, forgive men their trespasses; 
war says, forgive them not. The gospel 
enjoins forgiveness, and forbids revenge ; 
while war scorns the former, and com¬ 
mands the latter. The gospel says, re¬ 
sist not evil; war says, you may and must 
resist evil. The gospel says, if any man 
smite thee on one cheek, turn to him the 
other also; war says, turn not the other 
cheek, but knock the smiter down. The 
gospel says, bless those who curse you ; 
bless, and curse not; war says, curse 
those who curse you; curse and bless not. 
The gospel says, pray for those who de- 
spitefully use you and persecute you; 


44 


TIIE BIBLE AGAINST WAK. 


war says, pray against them, and seek 
their destruction. The gospel says, see 
that none shall render evil for evil unto 
any man ; war says, be sure to render 
evil for evil unto all that injure you. The 
gospel says, overcome evil with good ; 
war savs, overcome evil with evil. The 
gospel says, if thine enemy hunger, feed 
him; if he thirst, give him drink : war 
says, if you do supply your enemies with 
food and drink you will be shot as a trait- 
or. The gospel says, do good unto all 
men : war says, do as much evil as you 
can to your enemies. The gospel says to 
all men, love one another : war says, hate 
and kill one another. The gospel says, 
they that take the sword, shall perish by 
the sword : war says, they that take the 
sword, shall be saved by the sword. The 
gospel says, blessed is he that trusteth in 
the Lord: war says, cursed is such a man, 
and blessed is he that trusteth in swords 
and guns. God says, beat your swords 
into ploughshares, your spears into prun- 


THE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 


45 


ing-hooks, and learn war no more: war 
says, make swords and spears still, and 
continue to learn war.” 

“ War in its spirit, its principles, its 
legitimate results, is antagonistic to Chris¬ 
tianity. Peace was the song chanted 
over her cradle by angels fresh from the 
God of love. Her Founder was the 
Prince of Peace ; her gospel is the statute 
book of peace; the principles of peace 
are scattered throughout the New Testa¬ 
ment, and most fully were they enforced 
by the example of Christ, his apostles, and 
all his early disciples. 

“ Glance at the general contrariety of 
war to the gospel. Says Dr. Malcom, 
‘ War contradicts the very genius and in¬ 
tention of Christianity. Christianity, if 
it prevailed, would make the earth a par¬ 
adise ; war, wherever it prevails, makes 
it a slaughter-house, a den of thieves, a 
brothel, a hell. Christianity is the reme¬ 
dy for all human woes ; war produces ev¬ 
ery woe known to man. All the features 


46 


TIIE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 


all the concomitants, all the results of 
war, are the opposite of the features, the 
concomitants, the results of Christianity. 
The two systems conflict in every part 
irreconcilably and eternally. 

« The whole structure of any army is 
in violation of New Testament precepts. 
What absolute despotism ! ‘ Condescend¬ 

ing to men of low estate,’ would spoil 
discipline. ‘ Esteeming others better than 
ourselves’ would degrade the officers, 
instead of humility, must be gay trap¬ 
pings. Instead of Christ’s law of love, 
must be man’s rule of honor. Instead of 
examining all things, the soldier must be 
like a trained blood-hound, ready to be let 
loose against any foe. Instead of return¬ 
ing good for evil, the army is organized 
expressly to return injuries with interest. 
The qualities required in the Christian, 
spoil a soldier for the field. He must then 
cast away meekness, and fight. He must 
cast away honesty, and forage. He must 
cast away forgiveness, and revenge his 


THE BIBLE AGAINST AVAR. 


47 


country. He must return blow for blow, 
wound for wound. Thus, when we take 
the common soldier individually, we find 
him compelled to violate every precept of 
his religion . 

Let us state a few points that will 
be conceded by all. 1. The deeds of war 
in themselves considered, are confessedly 
forbidden in the New Testament, and 
can be justified only on the supposition, 
that government has a right in war, to 
reverse or suspend the enactments of 
Heaven. 

“ 2. The spirit of war is acknowledged 
by all to be contrary to that of the gos¬ 
pel. But can we have war without its 
spirit ? What is the spirit of any cus¬ 
tom or act but the moral character of that 
custom or act? Blasphemy without the 
spirit of blasphemy! Perpetrate the 
deeds of war without the spirit of war, 
and destroy property, life, and happiness 
by wholesale, from motives of pure be¬ 
nevolence! Kill men just for their own 


48 


THE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 


benefit! Send them to perdition for their 
own good !! Tremendous logic ; yet the 
only sort of logic that ever attempts to 
reconcile war with the gospel; a logic 
that would require us to suppose, that 
thousands of cut-throats by profession, 
generally unprincipled and reckless, fierce, 
irascible and vindictive, the tigers of so¬ 
ciety, will shoot, and stab, and trample 
one another down in the full exercise of 
Christian patience, forgiveness and love ! ! 

“ 3. The qualities required of warriors, 
are the reverse of those which character¬ 
ize the Christian. Even Palev, the ablest 
champion of war, avers that ‘ no two 
things can be more different than the 
Heroic and the Christian characters,’ and 
then proceeds to exhibit the two in strik¬ 
ing contrast as utterly irreconcilable. 
Must not war itself be equally incom¬ 
patible with Christianity? 

“ 4. The gospel enjoins no virtue which 
the soldier may not discard without losing 
bis military rank or reputation ; nor does 


THE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 


49 


it forbid a solitary vice which he may 
not practice without violating the prin¬ 
ciples of war. 

“ 5. While the gospel prescribes rules 
for every lawful relation and employment 
in life, it lays down not a single principle, 
applicable to the soldier’s peculiar busi¬ 
ness, and evidently designed for his use. 
If war is right, why this studious avoid¬ 
ance, this utter neglect of its agents ? 

“ 6. The Old Testament predicts that 
the gospel will one day banish war from 
the earth forever. But if consistent with 
Christianity, how will the gospel ever 
abolish it ? The gospel destroy what it 
sanctions and supports! 

“ 7. Christians, in the warmest glow of 
their love to God and man, shrink with in¬ 
stinctive horror from the deeds of cruelty 
and blood essential to war; nor can they, 
in such a state of mind, perpetrate them, 
without doingviolence to their best feelings. 

8. Converts from paganism, in the sim¬ 
plicity of their first faith, have uniformly 


50 


TIIE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 


understood the gospel as forbidding this 
custom. Such was remarkably the case 
in the South Sea Islands ; and the fact 
goes far to prove, that no mind, not under 
the hereditary delusions of war, would 
ever find in the gospel any license for its 
manifold abominations. 

But let the New Testament speak for 
itself. It may forbid war either by a di¬ 
rect condemnation of it , or by the 'prohibi¬ 
tion of its moral elements , the things 
which go to constitute war ; and we con¬ 
tend that the gospel does forbid it in both 
these ways. 

I. Note first its express condemnation 
of war. “ From whence come wars and 
fightings among you ? Come they not 
hence, even of your lusts?” James iv. 
1. We cannot well conceive a denuncia¬ 
tion more direct or more decisive. Our 
Savior before Pilate declared, “ if my 
kingdom were of this world, then would 
my servants fight; but now is my king¬ 
dom not from hence.”— John xviii. 36. 


THE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 


51 


A most unequivocal condemnation of war 
as inconsistent with Christianity. “ Fol- 
low peace with all men.” Heb. xii. 14. 
Or, as it is in the original, seek earnestly, 
with all your might, after peace, not only 
with yonr own countrymen, but with for¬ 
eigners ; not with your friends alone, but 
with your enemies, with the whole human 
race. What language could, if these pas¬ 
sages do not, condemn war as utterly un¬ 
christian. 

II. But look at the still more decisive 
mode of forbidding war by the condemna¬ 
tion of its moral elements. The gospel 
puts them all under ban. War contra¬ 
venes the fundamental principle of Chris¬ 
tianity. This principle is, enmity subdued 
by love , evil overcome with good, injury 
requited by kindness. It pervades the 
whole New Testament; it is the soul of 
the Christian system. The peculiar pre¬ 
cepts of the gospel all rest on this princi¬ 
ple; nor can we take it away without 
subverting the entire fabric of Christianity. 


52 


TIIE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 


But this principle is incompatible with 
war, because war always aims to over- 

-ii 1 

come evil with evil, to return 
injury, to subdue our enemies 
them wretched, to inflict on 
ants the very evils they meditate against 
us, to save our own life, property and 
happiness by sacrificing theirs. Such is 
war in its best form ; but, if this be not 
a contradiction of the gospel, we know 
not what is, and challenge you to con¬ 
ceive a principle more directly opposed 
to that which lies at the foundation of 
Christianity. 


injury for 
by making 
our assail- 


But the gospel condemns in detail the 
moral elements of war. “ Lay aside all 
malice ; and let all bitterness, and wrath, 
and anger be put away. Avenge not 
yourselves. Recompense to no man evil 
for evil. See that none render evil for 
evil to any man. Whereas there is among 
you envying and strife, and division, are 
ye not carnal ?—Now, the works of the 
flesh are these: hatred, variance, emula- 



THE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 


53 


tion, wrath,strife, sedition, envyings, mur^ 
ders, revilings, and such like.” Need any 
one be told, that the things here denounc¬ 
ed, are inseparable from war, and consti¬ 
tute its very essence ? What! war with¬ 
out bitterness, wrath or anger, without 
variance, emulation or murder ! Nations 
go to war without avenging themselves, 
and rendering evil for evil! 

The gospel, however, still more fully 
condemns war by enjoining what is incon¬ 
sistent with it. “ Thou shalt love thy 
neighbor as thyself; ” and the parable of 
the Good Samaritan makes every human 
being our neighbor. “ Love worketh no 
ill to his neighbor; therefore love is the 
fulfilling of the law. Charity (love) suf- 
fereth long and is kind ; seeketh not her 
own ; is not easily provoked ; thinketh no 
evil; beareth all things, believeth all 
things, hopeth all things, endureth all 
things. Do good unto all men. What¬ 
soever ye would that men should do unto 
you, do ye even so to them.—By this 




54 


THE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 


shall all men know that ye are my disci¬ 
ples, if ye have love one to another. 
Have peace one with another. The fruit 
of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suf¬ 
fering, forbearing one another, forgiving 
one another, even as Christ forgave you. 
The wisdom which is from above, is first 
pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to 
be entreated. Blessed are the poor in 
spirit — the meek — the merciful — the 
peacemakers. Resist not evil; but who¬ 
soever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, 
turn to him the other also. Overcome 
evil with good. Love your enemies, bless 
them that curse you, do good to them that 
hate you.”— P. Man. pp . 139, 147—153. 

Surely the Spirit of the New Testament 
is wholly opposed to war. Therefore the 
spirit of the Old Testament must be op¬ 
posed to war, as they each have the same 
Author, W7i“changed ” and unchangable. 

CHRIST THE ANGEL OF THE OLI) COVENANT. 

We see then that if Christ be our teach¬ 
er, we “ learn war no more.” But Christ 


THE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 


55 


was the “ Angel” of the old covenant 
also, whose “ voice” they were to “obey” 
Jesus Christ was “ that Prophet” unto 
whom they were to “hearken” (See 
Beut. xviii. 15, and Acts iii. 22, 23.) And 
the promises relating to the “ land,” were 
all connected with promises relating to 

Christ. (Gen. xii. 1-4; xxviii: 13, 14; Gal. 
3: 14-16.) And it was evidently God’s 
design that the Jews should, on entering 
Palestine, “ enter into rest.” (See Heb. 
3 : and 4:) “A rest” from all war— 

from all the lusts of the flesh—a rest such 
as is found in Christ Jesus—such as re¬ 
sults from obeying the gospel, so that if 
the, Jews were men of war it was because 
they would not hearken to the “ Prince of 
Peace.” And the Jewish wars were no 
more in accordance with the will of God 
than are the wars of our day. In each 
case they result from a love of war rath¬ 
er than peace. I do not however mean 
that war was ever approved by the rea- 


56 


THE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 


son* or conscience of man. Nay, verily, 

WAR IS NOW AND ALWAYS HAS BEEN RE¬ 
GARDED AS A CURSE. 

Even General Taylor says, “ I sincere¬ 
ly rejoice at the prospect of peace. My 
life has been devoted to arms, yet I look 
upon war, at all times and under all cir¬ 
cumstances, as a NATIONAL CALAMITY, tO be 
avoided if compatible with national honor. 1 * 
—Allison Letter. 

Hence, the Bible classes war with the 
“ famine ” the “ pestilence 11 and other 
judgments for sin. “ I will send the 
sword the pestilence and the famine 
among them till they be consumed from 
off the land.”— Jer. xxiv. 10. “ So Gad 

came to David and said to him ‘ Thus saith 

* M. Raymond de Sagra, the only advocate of 
war at the late Peace Congress at Brussels, urg¬ 
ed the use of the sword, because “the age of 
faith had passed, but the age of reason has not 
arrived.” So in speaking of the defense of their 
country, or their family, we often hear men say, 
“ I would fight like a dog “ I would fight like a 
tiger," but never, “I would fight like a Christian.” 





TIIE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 


57 


the Lord, choose thee either three years’ 
famine, or three years to be destroyed 
before thy foes, while that the sword of 
thine enemies overtaketh thee, or else 
three days the sword of the Lord, even 
the pestilence in the land and the angel of 
the Lord destroying throughout all the 
coasts of Israel.”*—I Chron. xxi. 11,12. 

I repeat, then, in the language of Cru- 
den, “ War is threatened of God in scrip¬ 
ture as one of the greatest judgments, and 
may justly be reckoned among the many 
miseries which sin has entailed on man¬ 
kind.” DCT A. curse not simply to the ag¬ 
gressor, hut to each party—to all engaged 
in it . 

THE BIBLE SPEAKS OF PEACE AS A BLESSING 

-THE RESULT OF OBEDIENCE AND FAITH. 

For example, “ The Lord will bless his 
people with peace.— Ps. xxix. 11. The 

* Mark the wisdom of David’s choice. He 
rightly considered the pestilence as the “ least 
of the three evils." The pestilence is not so great 
a curse as war. See Jer. xxxiv. 17-20 : xiv. 12. 
2 Chron. xx. 9. Levit. xxvi. 23-37. 


58 THE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 

work of righteousness shall be peace and 
the effect of righteousness, quietness and 
assurance forever and my people shall 
dwell in a peaceable habitation and in 
sure dwellings and in quiet resting 
places.”— Isa. xxxii. 17, 18. “ Because 

we have sought the Lord our God—-we 
have sought and He has given us rest on 
every side.”—2 Cliron . xiv. 7. “ I will 

hear what God the Lord will speak : for 
He will speak peace unto his people and 
his saints ; but let them not turn again to 
folly. Surely his salvation is nigh them 
that fear Him, that glory may dwell in our 
land. Mercy and truth are met together. 
Righteousness and peace have kissed each 
other.”— Ps. lxxxv. 8-10. “ The wisdom 

that is from above, is first pure , then peace¬ 
able, gentle, easy to be entreated, full of 
good fruits, without partiality and without 
hypocrisy ; and the fruit of righteous¬ 
ness is sown in peace by those who prac¬ 
tice peace. — Jas. iii. 17, 18. “But there 
is no peace saith my God to the wicked .”— 


THE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 


59 


TIIE BIBLE MAKES NO DISTINCTION BETWEEN 

OFFENSIVE AND DEFENSIVE WAR.* 

Yea, more, the wars which the Bible is 
said to sustain were aggressive. Such as 
no one now thinks of justifying. Pres. 
Polk and Gen. Taylor did not fulfill to the 
letter the injunction, “Thou shalt save 
alive nothing that breatheth,”— Dt. xx. 
16, and yet 1 have heard no one complain 
'of their mercy.')’ 

■ t 

THE CANAANITES DOOMED TO DESTRUCTION 

BECAUSE OP THEIR SIN. 

That God had a sacred right to destroy 
the inhabitants of the old world by a 
flood, and Sodom by fire and brimstone, 
all admit who regard Him as man’s right¬ 
eous Sovereign and Creator. Jehovah 
alone can give life, and it is his preroga¬ 
tive to take life. If he has a right to do 

* This distinction , together with the idea of 
“ organic sin,” is the offspring of our own age. 

f Save Senator Bagly. 


60 


THE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 


it in person, he has a right to select his 
own means and commission whom he will 
as executioners. As to the antediluvian 
world, “God saw that the wickedness of 
man was great in the earth, and that ev¬ 
ery imagination of the thoughts of his 
heart was only evil continually,”— Gen. 
viii. 5, and benevolence demanded their 
destruction. Of Sodom, “ The Lord said, 
because tho cry of Sodom and Gomorrah 
is great, and because their sin is very 
grievous , I will go down now, and see 
whether they have done altogether ac¬ 
cording to the cry of it which is come 
unto me; and if not I will know.”— Gen. 
xviii. 20, 21, and when he found them 
perfectly steeped in licentiousness, be¬ 
yond all hope of recovery, He commis¬ 
sioned his destroying angels to go forth 
upon their work of death, who say, “ We 
will destroy this place because the cry of 
them is waxen great before the Lord: 
and the Lord hath sent us to destroy it.” 
— Gen. xix. 13. It would be strange in- 


THE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 


61 


deed to argue that because the angels had a 
commission to destroy Sodom, therefore , it 
was right to destroy mankind every where 
according to their discretion, and much 
more strange would be the logic that 
would urge that angels generally could 
destroy mankind any where and every 
where, because certain angels had been 
commissioned to a certain work of de¬ 
struction for specified reasons. But this 
would be no more strange than to urge 
that because the Jews had a divine com¬ 
mission to destroy the Canaanites, there¬ 
fore , mankind in general can destroy one 
another at discretion. 

* 

The very fact of a restrictive commis¬ 
sion shows that the work was not lawful 
without a commission. 

God saw the increasing iniquity of the 
Canaanites, and foreseeing that benevo¬ 
lence would eventually demand their ex¬ 
tirpation, promised the land they then 
occupied, to Abraham and his seed, in¬ 
terdicting his immediate possession be- 

c 


62 


TIIE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 


cause “ the iniquity of the Amorites was 
not yet fully — Gen. xv. 16. But when 
their cup became filled to the brim, so that 
their continued existence would but prove 
a curse to themselves and all over whom 
they had influence, he gave the heirs to un¬ 
derstand that they could take possession. 

The work of destruction was entrusted 
to the Jews, not because there was any 
enmity between them, nor because their 
“ national honor” was at stake. It was 
because the Canaanites were the enemies 
of Jehovah, opposed to all good and given 
up to every abomination, that they were 
to be “ consumed from off the land.” 
This is evident from Deut. 18: 12. “ Be¬ 

cause of these abominations, tiie Lord 
tiiy God doth drive them out from 
before thee.” (See the context.) “And 
the land is defiled : therefore do I visit 
the iniquity thereof upon it, and the land 
itself vomitethout her inhabitants.”— Lev, 
xviii. 25. See also Lev. xx. 22, 23, and 
parallel passages. 


THE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 


63 


Nor was it because the Jews were in a 
state of faith and acceptance with God, 
that they were called to possess the land. 
Jehovah again and again reiterated that 
it was not for the faith and righteousness 
of God’s people, but for the abominations 
of the Canaanites that He drove them 
out. Hence He says, “ Speak not thou 
in thy heart, after that the Lord thy God 
hath cast them out from before thee, 
saying, For my righteousness the Lord 
hath brought me in to possess this land : 
but for the wickedness of these nations 
the Lord doth drive them out from before 
thee. Not for thy righteousness, or for 
the uprightness of thy heart dost thou go 
to possess their land : but for the wicked¬ 
ness of these nations, the Lord thy God 
doth drive them out from before thee, 
and that He may perform the word 
which the Lord sware unto thy fathers 
Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Understand 
therefore, that the Lord thy God giveth 
thee not this good land to possess it for 


64 TIIE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 

thy righteousness ; for thou art a stiff¬ 
necked people. Remember, and forget 
not, how thou provokedst the Lord thy 
God to wrath in the wilderness: from the 
day that thou didst depart out of the 
land of Egypt, until ye came unto this 
place, ye have been rebellious against the 
Lord.”— Deut. ix. 4—7. More of this 
anon. 

v 

THE JEWS WERE TO EXPERIENCE THE SAME 

JUDGMENTS IF GUILTY OF THE SAME 

ABOMINATIONS. 

The Jews themselves were to share 
the same fate, if guilty of the same 
crimes. “And it shall be if thou do 
at all forget the Lord thy God, and 
walk after other Gods, and serve them, 
and worship them, I testify against you 
this day, that ye shall surely perish. As 
the nation which the Lord destroyeth be¬ 
fore your face, so shall ye perish; be¬ 
cause ye would not be obedient unto the 
voice of the Lord your God .”—Deut . viii. 



THE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 


65 


19, 20. See also Deut. xvii. 2—5; Lev . 
xviii. 24—30; Lev . xx. 22, 23. Thus, 
when they had made, and bowed down 
to the golden calf, Moses commanded the 
sons of Levi to “ put every man his sword 
by his side, and go in and out from gate 
to gate throughout the camp, and slay 
every man his brother, and every man his 
companion, and every man his neighbor. 
And the children of Levi did according to 
the word of Moses: and there fell of the 
people that day about three thousand 
men.”— Ex. xxxii. 27,28. Was this war ?! 

THERE WAS NO WAR NOR FIGHTING WHEN 
THE JEWS EXERCISED FAITH IN GOD. 

Whenever they had faith in God as a 
4 grain of mustard seed,’ there was no 
fighting. The enemies of Jehovah, ter¬ 
ror-stricken at his presence, submitted 
themselves, as in the case of the guilty 
Israelites before the sons of Levi: as did 
the inhabitants of Jericho to Joshua and his 
host, as they go forth in the stillness of 


66 


TIIE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 


death, bearing the ark of Jehovah, with 
no battering rams, nor implements of any 
kind for demolishing the city save the 
“seven trumpets of the jubilee.” Day after 
day, for six successive days they encom¬ 
passed the city, exposing themselves to 
the jeers of the idolaters, as though by 
the blowing of rams’ horns their strong 
walls were to crumble ! But their faith 
and patience failed not. They “waited 
upon God,” and seven times on the sev¬ 
enth day they go round about the city, 
still sounding their trumpets, till at the 
seventh time Joshua said unto the people, 
“ Shout! for the Lord hath given you the 
city.” And it came to pass when the 
people heard the sound of the trumpet, 
and the people shouted with a great shout, 
that the wall fell down flat; so that the 
people went up into the city, every man 
straight before him and took the city.”— 
Josh. 6. Thus, ‘ by faith,' not by force, 
the walls of Jericho fell.* Here was no 

* So began to be fulfilled Ex. xv. 15, 16; and 
Deut. ii. 25. 


THE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 


67 


fighting,—no “ contest,” but the simple 
execution of divine law upon the wicked, 
as each man went in straight before him, 
and entered upon his mission of death. 
It is altogether a misnomer to call this war. 
Who ever heard of a war where the slain 
were all of one party, and the whole party 
slain? Who ever heard of a war where 
the fighting (?) was all on one side? 
DCT It takes two to fight . Yet there is 
no evidence that a single Israelite was 
slain, nor that a single inhabitant of Jeri¬ 
cho lifted his hand in resistance to the 
executioners. Does this look like what 
we call war?! 

THE JUDGMENT OF WAR INFLICTED ON 

THEM FOR SIN. 

But now, as at other times, when 
God honored them, they were filled 
with pride, and essay the destruction 
of Ai in their own wisdom and strength. 
And Joshua, contrary to the divine in¬ 
junction, (see Num. xxvii: 21,) ‘asked 
not counsel at the mouth of the Lord, 


68 


TIIE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 


but sent out spies, who, self-confi¬ 
dent, return, saying, “Let not all the 
people go up, but let about two or three 
thousand men go lip and smite Ai: make 
not all the people to labor thither, for 
they are but few. So there went up of 
the people about three thousand men: 
and they fled before the men of Ai. And 
the men of Ai smote of them about thirty- 
six men: wherefore the hearts of the peo¬ 
ple melted, and became as water. And 
Joshua rent his clothes, and fell to the 
earth upon his face before the ark of the 
Lord until the even-tide, he and the 
elders of Israel, and put dust upon their 
heads.” Even Joshua has lost his former 
faith, and begins to repent that they had 
passed over Jordan. He penitently pours 
forth his prayer to God, and is heard. 
‘The Lord said unto Joshua, Get thee 
up; wherefore liest thou upon thy face? 
Israel hath sinned , and they have also 
transgressed my covenant which I com¬ 
manded/ ‘ Therefore the children of Is- 


THE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 


69 


rael could not stand before their enemies, 
but turned their backs before their ene¬ 
mies, because they were accursed: neither 
will I be with you any more , except ye de¬ 
stroy the accursed from among you.’— 
Josh. 7. The curse of war is upon them, 
because they had sinned ; and remains 
upon them till the accursed are put away 
from among them, till thoroughly hum¬ 
bled they are again willing to look to God 
for instruction. 

If war was what they expected, how can 
we account for their astonishment, that out 
of three thousand they “lost” thirty-six 

men. U^T* Those who obey and trust God 
are never obliged to fight. Such are 
“saved by the Lord their God, and not 
by the sword.” 

THE CONSTANT LIABILITY OF THE JEWS TO 
FALL INTO IDOLATRY AND SIN, ONE REA¬ 
SON WHY GOD APPPOINTED THEM TO THE 
WORK OF DESTRUCTION. 

God evidently selected the Jews to ful¬ 
fill his purposes of wrath upon the idola- 


70 


TIIE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 


tors because of their constant tendency 
to fall into the same sin. For the same 
reason all his judgments were performed 
“before their face.” But for this, their 
actual transgressions, and their own 
choice, God would have been his own 
avenger of blood. Their whole history 
is replete with evidence on this point. 
Had it not been for the hardness of their 
hearts,” had they not refused to “ hearken 
to that prophet ,” they would not have 
been called to act even as executioners. 
He inflicted his judgments upon Egypt 
without their agency. When hotly pur¬ 
sued by their oppressors, the mountains 
on either side and the Red sea before 
them, and thus apparently shut up to cer¬ 
tain and utter destruction, they cry unto 
Moses, ‘ Because there were no graves in 
Egypt hast thou taken us away to die in 
the wilderness? Moses said unto the 
people, fear ye not: stand still and see the 
salvation of the Lord which He will show 
you this day. * * The Lord shallfight 


THE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 


71 


for you , and ye shall hold your peace. * * 
And the Egyptians shall know that I am 
the Lord when I have gotten me honor 
upon Pharaoh.’ 

OGf 3 This is the mode of procedure he 
had designed. All along He reminds them 
of what He did to Egypt—of the “ won¬ 
ders their eyes saw,” and promises to do 
to all the inhabitants of Canaan, as He 
had done to Pharaoh and his host— 
if they would obey his voice. 

The promise is, “The Lord your God 
which goeth before you, He shall fight for 

you ACCORDING TO ALL THAT HE DID FOR 

you in Egypt before your eyes.”— Deut. i. 
30. “ Ye shall not fear them, for the Lord 
your God He shall fight for you.”— Deut. 
iii. 22. “ If thou shalt say in thine heart, 

these nations are more than I, how can I 
dispossess them, thou shalt not be afraid 
of them, but shalt well remember what 
the Lord thy God did unto Pharaoh and 
unto all Egypt, the great temptations 
which thine eyes saw, and the signs and 


72 


THE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 


the wonders and the mighty hand and the 
stretched out arm, whereby the Lord thy 
God brought thee out: So shall the Lord 
thy God do unto all the jieople of whom 
thou art afraid. If ye shall diligently keep 
all these commandments which I com¬ 
mand you, to do them —to love the Lord 
your God, to walk in all his ways, and to 
cleave unto Him, then will the Lord drive 
out all these nations from before you. * * 
Behold I set before you this day a 
blessing and a curse—a blessing if ye will 
obey the commandments of the Lord your 
God. * * And a curse if ye will not 

obey, &c.”— Deut. xi: 22—28. “ Behold 

I send an angel before thee to keep thee 
in the way and to bring thee into the 
place which I have prepared: beware of 
him and obey his voice; provoke him 
not, for he will not pardon your trans¬ 
gressions, for my name is in him. But 
if thou shalt indeed obey his voice, and 
do all that I speak, then I will be an ene¬ 
my unto thine enemies, and an adversary 


THE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 


73 


lo thine adversaries. For my angel shall 
go before thee and bring thee in unto the 
Amorites, and the Hittites, and the Peri- 
zites, and the Canaanites, and the Hivites, 
and the Jebuzites, and I will cut them off. 

* I will send mv fear before thee, 
and will destroy all the people to whom 
thou shalt come, and I will make all thine 
enemies turn their backs unto thee, and 
I will send hornets before thee.” &c.— 
{Ex. xxiii: 20—30. See also Josh, iii: 
10 ; Deut. xxxi. 6—8.) 

He promises to do to Canaan as he had 
done to Egypt. God was his own execu¬ 
tioner in Egypt, and He would have been 
in Canaan but for their own choice and 
want of faith in God. 

THE CANAANITES EXPECTED GOD WOULD 
FULFILL HIS PROMISE. 

Such was God’s promise, and even 
the heathen expected this promise would 
be fulfilled. “Rahab said unto the men, 
I know that the Lord hath given you 


74 


THE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 


the land, and that your terror is fallen 

upon us, and that all the inhabitants of 

the land faint because of you. For we 

have heard how the Lord dried up the 

water of the Red sea for you, when ye 

came out of Egypt; and what ye did 

• 

unto the two kings of the Amorites, 
that were on the other side Jordan, Sihon 
and Og, whom ye utterly destroyed. And 
as soon as we had heard these things, our 
hearts did melt, neither did there remain 
any more courage in any man, because 
of you: for the Lord your God, he is God 
in heaven above, and in earth beneath.” 
— Josh, ii: 9—11. “ And it came to pass 

when all the kings of the Amorites which 
were on the side of Jordan westward, 
and all the kings of the Canaanites which 
were by the sea, heard that the Lord 
had dried up the waters of Jordan from 
before the children of Israel, until we 
were passed over, that their heart melted; 
neither was there spirit in them anymore, 
because of the children of Israel.”— Josh. 


THE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 


75 


v : 1. The heathen knew enough of Je¬ 
hovah to believe He would do as He had 
said. 

GOD WAS TRUE TO HIS PROMISE WHENEVER 
THE CONDITION WAS FULFILLED. 

“ God is not a man that He should lie ; 
neither the son of man that He should re¬ 
pent: hath he said, and shall He not do it ? 
or hath He spoken, and shall He not make 
it good ?”— Num. xxiii: 19.. “ It is better 
to trust in the Lord than to put confi¬ 
dence in man. It is better to trust in the 
Lord than to put confidence in princes.” 
— Ps. cxviii: 8, 9. “And they that be¬ 
lieve on Him shall not be confounded.” 

CASE OF HEZEKIAH. 

The history of Hezekiah furnishes an 
illustration in point. When “ Sennache¬ 
rib king of Assyria came and entered into 
Judah and encamped against the fenced 
cities, and thought to break them up # * 
Hezekiah the king, and the prophet Isaiah 


76 


THE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 


the soil of Amoz, prayed and cried to 
heaven. And the Lord sent an angel 
which cut off all the mighty men of valor 
and the leader, and captains in the camp 
of the king of Assyria. So he returned 
with shame of face to his own land. And 
when he was come to the house of his 
god, they that came forth of his own 
bowels slew him there with the sword. 
Thus the lord saved Ilezekiah and the 
inhabitants of Jerusalem from the hand of 
Sennacherib the king of Assyria.”—See 
2 Ckron. xxxii. 1, 20—22. 

the case of jehoshaphat 

furnishes another striking example of 
the power of faith, and the safety of 
trusting God. “ The children of Moab, 
and the children of Ammon, and with 
them other besides the Ammonites, came 
against Jehoshaphat to battle. Then there 
came some that told Jehoshaphat, saying 
There cometh a great multitude against 
thee from beyond the sea, on this side 


THE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 


77 


Syria ; and behold they be in Hazazon- 
tamar, which is En-gedi. And Jehosha- 
phat feared , and set himself to seek the 
Lord , and proclaimed a fast throughout 
all Judah. And Judah gathered them 
selves’ together, to ask help of the Lord; 
even out of all the cities of Judah they 
came to seek the Lord. And Jehosha- 
phat stood in the congregation of Judah 
and Jerusalem, in the house of the Lord, 
before the new court, And said, “O Lord 
God of our fathers, art not thou God in 
heaven ? and rulest not thou over all the 
kingdoms of the heathen ? and in thine 
hand is there not power and might, so 
that none is able to withstand thee. Art 
not thou our God, who didst drive out 
the inhabitants of this land before thy 
people Israel, and gavest it to the seed of 
Abraham thy friend for ever ? And they 
dwelt therein, and have built thee a sanc¬ 
tuary therein for thy name, saying, If, 
when evil cometh upon us, as the sword, 
judgment or pestilence, or famine, we 


78 


TIIE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 


stand before this house and in thy pres¬ 
ence, (for thy name is in this house,) and 
cry unto thee in our affliction, then thou 
wilt hear and help. And now behold, the 
children of Ammon and Moaband Mount 
Seir, whom thou wouldest not let‘Israel 
invade, when they came out of the land 
of Egypt, but they turned from them, and 
destroyed them not; Behold, they re¬ 
ward us, to come to cast us out of thy 
possession, which thou hast given us to 
inherit. O, our God, wilt thou not judge 
them ? for we have no might against this 
great company that cometh against us; 
neither know w r e what to do; but our 
eyes are upon thee” And all Judah stood 
before the Lord with their little ones , their 
wives and their children . Then upon Ja- 
haziel, the son of Zechariah, the son of 
Benaiah, the son of Jeiel, the son of Mat- 
taniah, a Levite of the sons of Asaph, 
came the Spirit of the Lord in the midst 
of the congregation ; And he said, “Heark¬ 
en ye, all Judah, and ye inhabitants of Je- 


THE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 


79 


rusalem, and thou king Jehoshaphat; Thus 
saith the Lord unto you, Be not af raid nor 
dismayed by reason of this great multi¬ 
tude ; for the battle is not yours but God's. 
To-morrow go ye down against them: be¬ 
hold, they come up by the cliff of Ziz; 
and ye shall find them at the end of the 
brook, before the wilderness of Jeruel. 
dct i e shall not need tofight in this bat¬ 
tle ; set yourselves , stand ye still , and see 
the salvation of the Lord with you , O Ju¬ 
dah and Jerusalem : fear not nor be dis¬ 
mayed ; to-morrow go out against them, 
for the Lord will be with you. And Je¬ 
hoshaphat bowed his head, with his face 
to the ground: and all Judah and the in¬ 
habitants of Jerusalem fell before the Lord 
worshiping the Lord. And the Levites 
of the children of the Kohathites, and of 
the children of the Korhites, stood up to 
praise the Lord God of Israel with a loud 
voice on high. And they rose early in the 
morning, and went forth into the wilder¬ 
ness of Tekoa: and as they went forth, 


80 


THE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 


Jehoshaphat stood and said, Hear me, O 
Judah, and ye inhabitants of Jerusalem; 
Believe in the Lord your God; so shall ye 
be established; believe his prophets , so 
shall ye prosper. And when he had con¬ 
sulted with the people, he appointed sing¬ 
ers unto the Lord, and that should praise 
the beauty of holiness as they went out 
before the army, and to say, Praise the 
Lord , for his mercy endureth forever. 
And when they began to sing and to praise, 
the Lord set ambushments against the 
children of Ammon, Moab, and Mount 
Seir, which were come against Judah; 
and they were smitten. For the children 
of Ammon and Moab stood up against the 
inhabitants of Mount Seir, utterly to slay 
and destroy them: and when they had 
made an end of the inhabitants of Seir, 
every one helped to destroy another, 
And when Judah came toward the watch- 
tower in the wilderness, they looked unto 
the multitude, and behold they were dead 
bodies fallen to the earth, and none es- 


THE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 


81 


caped. And when Jehoshaphat and his 
people came to take away the spoil of 
them, they found among them in abun- 
dance, both riches with the dead bodies, 
and precious jewels, (which they stripped 
off for themselves,) more than they could 
carry away ; and they were three days 
in gathering of the spoil, it was so much. 
And on the fourth day they assembled 
themselves in the valley of Berachah ; for 
there they blessed the Lord ; therefore the 
name of the same place was called the 
valley of Berachah, unto this day. Then 
they returned every man of Judah and 
Jerusalem, and Jehoshaphat in the fore¬ 
front of them, to go again to Jerusalem 
with joy : for the Lord had made them to 
rejoice over their enemies. And they 
came to Jerusalem with psalteries and 
harps and trumpets, unto the house of the 
Lord. And the fear of God was on all the 
kingdoms of those countries when thexj 
had heard that the Lord fought against 
the enemies of Israel . So the realm of 


82 


THE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 


Jehoshaphat was quiet: for his God gave 
him rest round about.”—2 Chron. xx. 
1—30. 

He is now at no loss for an answer to 
the question “ What would you do in ex¬ 
treme cases ? ” “ God is our refuge and 

strength, a very present help in time of 
trouble: Therefore will not we fear, 

though the earth be removed, and though 
the mountains be carried into the midst 
of the sea ; Though the waters thereof 
roar and be troubled, though the moun¬ 
tains shake with the swelling thereof. Se- 
lah. There is a river, the streams where¬ 
of shall make glad the city of God, the ho¬ 
ly place of the tabernacles of the Most 
High. God is in the midst of her; she 
shall not be moved ; God shall help her, 
and that right early. The heathen raged, 
the kingdoms were moved : he uttered 
his voice, the earth melted. The Lord of 
hosts is with us ; the God of Jacob is our 
refuge. Selah. Come, behold the works 
of the Lord, what desolations he hath 


THE BIBLE AGAINST WAK. 


83 


made in the earth. He maketfi wars to 
cease unto the end of the earth ; he break- 
eth the bow, and cutteth the spear in sun¬ 
der : he burneth the chariot in the fire. Be 
still and know that I am God ; I will be 
exalted among the heathen; I will be ex- 
alted in the earth. The Lord of hosts is 
with us ; the God of Jacob is our refuge. 
Selah.”— Psalm xlvi. (*) 

This was the result of JehoshaphaVs 
faith, [I say “ JehoshaphaVs faith” “ for 
as yet the people had not prepared their 
hearts unto the God of their fathers.”—2 
Chron. xx. 33,] as he did “ that which was 
right in the sight of the Lord.” 

THE WANT OF THIS FAITH, WAS THE CAUSE 
OF THEIR WAR AND BLOODSHED. 

At the commencement of their jour- 
neyings, it was promised, “ The Lord 
shall fight for you, and you shall hold your 

(*) Psalm xlvi, and cxv, are supposed by Com^ 
mentators to have been written by Jehoshaphat 
directly after his notable deliverance. 


84 


TIIE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 


■peace .” God’s reason for leading them 
through the wilderness was to keep them 
out of the sight of war. “ God led them 
not through the way of the land of the 
Philistines, although that was near: for 
God said, lest peradventurc the people re¬ 
pent when they see war, and they return to 
Egypt.”— Ex. xiii. 17. And even after 
their repeated transgressions in the wil¬ 
derness, (by which they had once and 
again provoked war,) as they are about to 
pass over Jordan, God says, “ Know this 
day that Jehovah is thy God. He going 
before thee is a consuming fire. He shall 
destroy them, or He shall humble them 
before thy face, and thou shalt dispossess 
them, and cause them to wander, hasten¬ 
ing.”— (Deut. ix. 3, Hebrew,) and again, 
The Lord your God He shall expel them 
from before you, and drive them from out 
of your sight, and ye shall possess their 
land, as the Lord your God hath promis¬ 
ed you. Be ye therefore very courageous 
to keep and do all that is written in the 


THE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 


85 


book of the law of Moses , that ye turn not 
aside therefrom to the right hand or to 
the left.— (Josh, xxiii, 2, 6.) OCf 3 It needs 
more courage to obey God than it does to 
fight. The Lord your God which goeth 
before you , He shall fight for you accord¬ 
ing to all that He did for you in Egypt, 
before your eyes. Yet in this thing ye 
did not believe in the Lord your God , who 
went in the way before you to search you 
out a place to pitch your tents ; in fire by 
night to show you by what way ye 
should go, and in a cloud by day. 

THEY REFUSE TO FOLLOW THE PILLAR OF 
FIRE AND CLOUD. 

Again and again the complaint is made 
against them that “ they would not con¬ 
fide in God’s going before them to guide 
and direct as he had planned. (See Ex. 
xiii. 21, 22 ; Nu. ix. 15—23 i x. 34 ; Neh . 
fx. 12—19.) But distrustful of God, they 
sent spies to see whether it would be safe 
*or expedient to obey Him. " We will 

D 


86 


THE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 


send men before us, and they shall search 
us out the land, and bring us word again 
by what way w r e must go up and into 
wdiat cities we must come * # and the 

Lord heard the voice of vour words and 
was wroth, and sware, saying, there shall 
not one of these men of this evil generation 
see that good land,” &c.— Dt. i. 22—36. 
“ But Jeshurun waxed fat and kicked, * * 
he forsook God which made him, and 
lightly esteemed the rock of his salvation. 
They provoked Him to jealousy with 
strange gods with abominations, pro- 
voked they Him to anger—They sacri¬ 
ficed unto devils, not to God. * * And ’ 

when the Lord saw it, He abhorred them 
because of the provoking of his sons and 
daughters. And He said, I will hide my 
face from them ; I will see what their end 
shall be ; for they are a very froward gen¬ 
eration —children in whom is no faith * 

The sword without, and the 
terror within, shall destroy both the young 
man and the virgin ; the suckling with 


TIIE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 


87 


the mail of gray hairs # * oh ! that 

they were wise, that they understood this, 
that they would consider their latter end. 
How shall one chase a thousand, and two 
put ten thousand to flight, except their 
Rock had sold them, and the Lord had 
shut them up. For their rock is not as 
our Rock , even our enemies themselves 
being judges.— Deut . xxxii. 15—31. “Oh 
that thou hadst hearkened to r my command¬ 
ments ! then had thy peace been as a river, 
and thy righteousness as the waves of the 
sea.”— Isa. xlviii. 18. 

“ But my people would not hearken to 
my voice, and Israel would none of me, so 
I gave them up unto their own heart’s lusts, 
they walked in their own counsels.* O 
that my people had hearkened unto me, 
and Israel had walked in my way, I should 
soon have subdued their enemies and 
turned my hand against their adversaries. 

* Hebrew .—They desired me not. So I sent 
them according to the stubbornness of their heart. 
They walked according to their own plan. 


88 THE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 

The haters of the Lord should have sub¬ 
mitted themselves unto him. But their 
time should have endured forever.”— Ps . 

i y • 

lxxxi: 11, 15. 

TIIEIR CONSTANT MURMURINGS PROVOKE 
WAR. 

Their murmurings commenced imme¬ 
diately on their leaving Egypt, and con¬ 
tinued almost unceasingly till they were 
finally destroyed. Again and again had 
they rebelled against Jehovah and pro¬ 
voked him to anger by distrust, saying, 
'{* Is the Lord among us or not V* before 
they are made to taste the bitter dregs of 
war, (and then their success is made to 
depend on Moses's intercessions. 

GOD HAS PROMISED TO AVENGE AND PROTECT 

\ , 

IIIS PEOPLE. 

From Genesis to Revelations God prof¬ 
fers himself as the “ refuge,” the “ de¬ 
fense,” the “hiding place,” the “high 
tower,” the “ salvation” of his people: 


THE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 


89 


and never are they obliged to fight in 
self-defense when willing to trust Him. 
“Avenging is mine, I will repay, saith the 
Lord ; therefore if thine enemy hunger 
feed him.”— Rom. xii: 19, 20; &c. “He 
shall judge the poor of the people, He 
shall save the children of the needy, and 
shall break in pieces the oppressor.”— Ps. 
lxxii: 4. “ For he shall deliver the 

needy when he crieth; the poor also, and 
him that hath no helper. He shall spare 
the poor and needy, and shall save the 
souls of the needy. He shall redeem 
their soul from deceit and violence : and 
precious shall their blood be in his sight.” 
Ps. lxxii: 12, 13, 14. “ Hearken unto 
me, ye that know righteousness, the peo¬ 
ple in whose heart is my law; fear ye 
not the reproach of men, neither be ye 
afraid of their revilings. For the moth 
shall eat them up like a garment, and the 
worm shall eat them like wool: but my 
iighteousness shall be for ever, and my 
salvation from generation to generation. 


90 


THE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 


Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm 
of the Lord : awake, as in the ancient 
days, in the generations of old. Art 
thou not it that hath cut Rahab, and 
wounded the dragon? Art thou not it 
which hath dried the sea, the waters of 
the great deep; that hath made the 
depths of the sea a way for the ransomed 
to pass over? Therefore the redeemed 
of the Lord shall return, and come with 
singing unto Zion; and everlasting joy 
shall be upon their head : they shall ob¬ 
tain gladness and joy; and sorrow and 
mourning shall dee away. I, even I, am 
He that avengeth you: who art thou 
that thou shouldest be afraid of a man 
that shall die, and of the son of man which 
shall be made as grass ? And forgettest 
the Lord thy maker, that hath stretched 
forth the heavens, and laid the founda¬ 
tions of the earth ; and hast feared con¬ 
tinually every day, because of the fury of 
the oppressor, as if he were ready to de¬ 
stroy ? and where is the fury of the op- 


THE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 


91 


pressor ?”— Isa . li: 7—13 ; &e. See also 
Deut. xxxii: 35—43; Heb. x: 30: &c. 

ST IS god’s ARRANGEMENT THAT THEY WHO 
TAKE THE SWORD SHALL PERISH WITH 
THE SWORD. 

“ Surely your blood of your lives will I 
require,” (not shall ye require .) Whoso 
sheddeth man’s blood by man shall his 
blood be shed.”— Gen . ix: 5,9, 6. “He 
that leadeth into captivity shall go into 
captivity. He that killeth with the sword 
must be killed with the sword. Here 
is the patience and faith of the saints .” 
— Rev. 13: 10. 

PROOF FROM HISTORY OF THE PROVIDEN¬ 
TIAL FULFILMENT OF THESE PROMISES. 

And universal history testifies that this 
prediction has been verified to the letter. 
Hence says President Mahan in the Ober- 
lin Evangelist of March 15, 184S, under 
the caption, “ He that taketh the sword 
shall perish with the sword' 1 


92 


TIIE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 


“ How strikingly verified that maxim is in the* 
recent revolution in France. No monarch in 
Europe, probably, had taken the pains to throw 
around his throne, for self-protection, such a forest 
of glittering bayonets as Louis Philippe. Yet, by 
the very means by which he purposed to hold the 
populace in subjection was his own throne over¬ 
turned. When will oppressors, civil and ecclesi¬ 
astical, learn wisdom from the providence of 
God V ’ 


SAFETY FOUND IN TIIE EXERCISE OF PA¬ 
TIENCE AND FAITII. 

And I would add, when will the peo¬ 
ple of God learn that they do not need 
the sword for protection ? When will 
they realize that their safety is in their 
“ patience ” and their “ faith.” Their 
strength is to sit still. * For thus saith 
the Lord God the Holy One of Israel, in 
returning (that is, repenting,) and rest 
shall ye be saved in quietness, and confi¬ 
dence shall be your strength: and ye 
would not.” 

Here was the difficulty with the Jews. 
They “ would not ” trust God. 


THE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 


93 


THEY CHOSE TO DEFEND THEMSELVES, AND 

GOD IN ANTICIPATION OF THEIR REBEL¬ 
LION, GAVE THEM LAWS IN VIEW OF IT. 

“ The Lord said unto Moses, Behold 
thou shalt sleep with thy fathers, and this 
people will rise up and go a whoring after 
the gods of the strangers of the land 
whither they go to be among them, and 
will forsake me, and break my covenant, 
which I have made with them. Then my 
anger shall be kindled against them in 
that day, and I will forsake them, and I 
will hide my face from them, and they 
shall be devoured.”— Deut. xxxi, 16—18. 
And so it was. “ Thus saith the Lord 
God. In the day when I. chose Israel, and 
lifted up my hand unto the seed of the 
house of Jacob, and made myself known 
unto them in the land of Egypt, when I 
lifted up my hand unto them, saying, I am 
the Lord your God, in the day I lifted up 
my hand unto them to bring them forth 
of the land of Egypt, into a land that I 
had espied for them, flowing with milk 


94 


TIIE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 


and honey, which is the glory of all lands, 
then said I unto them, Cast ye away every 
man the abominations of his eyes , and 
defile not yourselves with the idols of 
Egypt. I am the Lord your God. But 
they rebelled against me, and would not 
hearken unto me. I gave them my 
statutes and showed them my judgments, 
which if a man do he shall even live 
in them. * * # But the 

house of Israel rebelled against me in the 
wilderness. They walked not in my 
statutes, and they despised my judgments, 
which if a man do he shall live in them. 
* # Wherefore I gave them 

also statutes that were not good , and judg¬ 
ments whereby they should not live .— 
Ezek. xx. 1—25. 

THEY DEMAND A KING TO FIGIIT TIIEIR 

BATTLES. 

Thus we can account for the commands 
to go and fight—for his command to ap¬ 
point a king, &c. ‘‘All the elders of Israel 


THE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 


95 


gathered themselves and came unto Sam¬ 
uel unto Ramah,and said unto him, Behold 
thou art old, and thy sons walk not in thy 
ways. Now make us a king to judge us 
like all the nations. But the thins dis - 
■pleased Samuel , when they said give us a 
king to judge us. And Samuel prayed 
unto the Lord, and the Lord said unto 
Samuel, hearken unto the voice of the 
people in all that they say unto thee, for 
they have not rejected thee, but they have 
rejected me, that I should not reign over 
them. According to all the works which 
they have done since the day I brought 
them up out of Egypt, even unto this day, 
wherewith they have forsaken me, and 
served other gods, so do they also unto 
thee. Now therefore hearken unto their 
voice: howbeit yet protest solemnly unto 
them, and show them the manner of the 
kins that shall reisn over them. # * Nev- 
ertheless the people refused to obey the 
voice of Samuel, and they said, Nay, but 
we will have a king over us, that we also 


9G 


THE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 


may be like the nations, and that our 
king may judge us, and go out before us, 
and fight our battles .”—1 Sam. viii. 4—22. 

Here is the secret. “ That he may 
fight our battles.” They wished to defend 
their “national honor” and “ stand up for 
their rights.” 

VARIOUS PROVOCATIONS. 

Hence they despised the God of peace, 
and “ their heart went after their idols” 
of war They took up the tabernacle of 
Moloch,* and the star of their god Rem- 
phan .—Acts vii. 43; Amos v. 2G. “ They 

served their idols, which were a snare 
unto them. Yea, they sacrificed their 
sons and daughters unto devils.” — Ps. 

* Moloch. A heathen deity, whose princi¬ 
pal sacrifices were human victims.”— Bag- 
st r. What better definition could you wish for 
a god of war 1 

“The star of your god Remphan.” Possibly 
this may have been the insignia upon their flag, 
as now are borne “the lone star of Texas,” our 
sacred stars and stripes, our ravenous “ Eagle,” 
the “ British Lion.” &c. 



THE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 


97 


cvi., 36, 37. “ How oft did they provoke 

Him in the wilderness, and grieve Him in 
the desert! Yea, they turned back and 
tempted God, and limited the Holy One 
of Israel. They remembered not his 
hand, nor the day when He delivered 
them from the enemy.” — Ps. Jxxviii. 
40—42. “ They provoked Him to anger 

with their high places, and moved Him to 
jealousy with their graven images. When 
God heard this, He was wroth, and greatly 
abhorred Israel. So that He forsook the 
tabernacle of Shiloh , the tent which He 
placed among men; and delivered his 
strength into captivity, and his glory into 
the enemy’s hand.”— Ps. lxxviii. 58—61. 
“ He gave his people over also unto the 
sworcl , and was wroth with his inherit¬ 
ance.” “ When He slew them, then they 
sought Him, and they returned and in¬ 
quired early after God. And they re¬ 
membered that God was their Rock, and 
the high God their Redeemer. Never¬ 
theless thev did flatter Him with their 



98 


TIIE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 


mouth, and they lied unto him with 
their tongues, for their heart was not 
right with Him, neither were they stead¬ 
fast in his covenant. But He being full 
of compassion, forgave their iniquity, and 
destroyed them not, yea, many a time 
turned He his anger away, and did not 
stir up all his wrath.”— Ps. lxxviii: 34, 
64. 

GOD OFTEN PROSPERED THEM NOTWITH¬ 
STANDING TIIEIR SINS ON ACCOUNT OF 
IIlS OATH TO ABRAHAM, AND FOR HIS 
“ MERCIES’ SAKE.” 

It was hard for Him to give them up. 
“ How shall I give thee up, Ephraim? 
how shall I deliver thee, Israel ? how shall 
I make thee as Admah? how shall I set 
thee as Zeboim ? my heart is turned 
within me, my repentings are kindled to¬ 
gether .”—Hosea xi: 8. His heart yearned 
to bless them, and through them a dying 
world. Indeed He had entered into a sol¬ 
emn covenant with Abraham to bless the 


TIIE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 


99 


world through him. (See Gen. xii: 1—3; 
and xxii: 1G.) To accomplish this purpose 
it was necessary to preserve the Hebrew 
nation distinct from all others. Here is 
one prominent reason for his often taking 
sides with them and saving them from the 
legitimate consequences of their own 
chosen way. Hence when they had 
openly apostatized and prostrated them¬ 
selves before the golden calf, “ and said, 
these be thy gods, O Israel, which 
have brought thee up out of the land 
of Egypt, the Lord said unto Moses, 
I have seen this people, and behold 
it is a stiff-necked people : now r there¬ 
fore let me alone, that my wrath may 
wax hot against them, and that I may 
consume them, and I will make of thee 
a great nation. And Moses besought 
the Lord his God, and said, Lord, why 
doth thy wrath wax hot against thy peo¬ 
ple, which Thou hast brought forth out of 
the land of Egypt with great power, and 
with a mighty hand ? Wherefore should 


100 TIIE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 

the Egyptians speak and say, For mischief 
did He bring them out, to slay them in 
the mountains, and to consume them from 
the face of the earth? Turn from thy 
fierce wrath, and repent of this evil 
against thy people. Remember Abra¬ 
ham, Isaac, and Israel, thy servants, to 
whom thou swarest by thine own self, 
and saidst unto them, I will multiply your 
seed as the stars of heaven; and all this 
land that I have spoken of will I give unto 
your seed, and they shall inherit it for 
ever. And the Lord repented of the 
evil which he thought to do unto his peo¬ 
ple.”— Ex. xxxii: 8—14. So for his own 
name’s sake, and for his oath’s sake, He 
often blessed them in their own chosen 
way. 

' • 

god’s reputation connected with tiieir 

SUCCESS IN BATTLE. 

Again, God’s reputation was intimately 
connected with their prosperity, and as 
Israel's God He often gave theiji the vie- 


THE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 101 


torv, lest the heathen should attribute 
their success to their idols. Hence, again, 
the force of the prayer of Moses: “ Re¬ 
member Thv servants Abraham, Isaac, 
and Jacob. Look not unto the stubborn¬ 
ness of this people, nor to their wicked¬ 
ness, nor to their sins. Lest the land 
whence Thou broughtest them out say , ‘Be¬ 
cause the Lord was not able to bring them 
into the land which He promised themf 
fyc. * * Since they are Thy people 

and Thine inheritance.”—Deut . ix: 25— 
29. 

So when they were driven into captiv¬ 
ity because of their sins, and the hea¬ 
then reproached them tauntingly, saying, 
“ These are the people of the Lord !” Je¬ 
hovah assigns as the reason for delivering 
them, “ I had pity for my holy name, 
which the house of Israel had profaned 
among the heathen whither they went. 
Therefore say unto the house of Israel, 
Thus saith the Lord God, I do not this for 
your sakes , O house of Israel, but for my 


102 TIIE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 

holy name’s sake which ye have profaned 
among the heathen whither ye went. * * 
Not for your sakes do I this, saith the 
Lord God, be it known to you. Be 
ashamed and confounded, for vour own 
ways, O house of Israel.”— Ezek.xxxx i; 19 
—36. See also Isa. xlviii; Isa.x 1; Ps. 135. 

THEY FREQUENTLY HAD FAITH IN GOD, 
SIMPLY AS CONTRASTED WITH TIIE IDOL 
GODS OF TIIE HEATHEN, AND THEY WERE 
BLESSED ACCORDING TO THEIR FAITH. 

With but few exceptions the Jews had 
but little faith in God, and not only were 
the heathen wont to attribute their victo¬ 
ries to their idols, but there was the same 
tendency in the minds of the Jews. 

God’s effort and design was to increase 
and develop their faith in Him, and “ for 
his own name’s sake” He often blessed 
them in doing what He did not approve— 
the best he could do in the circumstances 
•—on the same principle that He now 
4 ‘ sends rain on the just and on the 


THE BIBLE AGAINST AVAR. 103 

unjust.” Wherever there was faith— 
even on the part of a few—to take God 
as He had all along manifested Himself— 
as a Savior from their enemies, He was 
found of them according to their faith. 
A beautiful illustration of this is found in 
the 

CASE OF ELISHA. 

When the king of Syria encompassed 
Dothan with “ horses and chariots and a 
great host” to capture Elisha, his servant 
said to him, “ Alas my master, how shall 
we do ? And he answered, Fear not; 
for they that be with us are more than 
they that be with them. And Elisha 
prayed and said, Lord, I pray thee, open 
his eyes that he may see. And the Lord 
opened the eyes of the young man ; and he 
saw, and the mountain was full of horses 
and chariots of fire round about Eli¬ 
sha. And when they came down to him, 
Elisha prayed unto the Lord, and said, 
Smite this people, I pray thee, with blind¬ 
ness. And he smote them with blind- 


104 THE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 


ness, according to the word of Elisha.”— 
2 Kings vi. 16-18 ; and in this state Eli¬ 
sha led them into the city of Samaria, to 
their enemy the king of Israel, who, elat¬ 
ed at seeing them, said, u My father, shall 
I smite them? shall I smite them? And 
he answered, thou shalt not smite them: 
wouldst thou smite those whom thou hast 
taken captive with thy sword and with 

thv bow ? Set bread and water before 

* 

them, that they may eat and drink, and go 
to their master. And he prepared great 
provision for them: and when they had 
eaten and drunk, he sent them away, 
and they went to their master. So the 
bands of Syria came no more into the 
land of Israel.”—2 Kings vi. 22-23. 

Paul’s “ coals of fire” were effectual. 

“ The Lord also will be a refuge for 
the oppressed, a refuge in times of trouble. 
And they that know thy name will put 
their trust in thee ; for thou, Lord hast not 
forsaken them that seek thee.”— Ps . ix. 
9, 10. “ Be not afraid, only believe.” 


TIIE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 105 

So afterwards, when Benhadad besieg¬ 
ed Samaria and caused “ a great famine” 
so that women ate their own children to 
satiate the cravings of their hunger (!) one 
of the dire fruits of war—the wicked 
king attributed the cause of their difficul¬ 
ty to Elisha, and sent to slay him, but in 
answer to Elisha’s prayer, “ The Lord 
had made the host of the Syrians to hear 
a noise of chariots, and a noise of horses, 
even the noise of a great host; and they 
said one to another, Lo, the king of Is¬ 
rael hath hired against us the kings of 
the Hittites, and the kings of the Egypt¬ 
ians, to come upon us. Wherefore they 
arose and fled in the twilight, and left 
their tents, and their horses, and their 
asses, even the camp as it was, and fled 
for their life.”—2 Kings vii. 6, 7, leaving 
a great abundance of provisions for their 
famished foes. 

OCT “ If thou canst believe, all things 
are possible to him that believeth.” 


106 THE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 

In other cases God found simply faith 
enough to look to Him for success in battle, 
and lest his giving the victory to their 
enemies should be wrongly construed by 
each party, and to punish the guilty, He 
gave them success. In illustration see 

TIIE CASE OF ABIJAII. 

When Jeroboam made war with him, 
Abijah’s faith did not look to God as a 
Refuge. He had barely faith enough to 
look to God for success in self-defense, not 
enough to seek Him as a “ hiding-place,” 
but simply to contrast Him with the idols 
of Jeroboam. “ And the children of Ju¬ 
dah prevailed because they relied upon the 
Lord God of their fathers.”—See 2 Chron. 
xiii. 18, and context. 

The same also may be said of 

ASA HIS SON. 

When Zera the Ethiopian came against 
him with a host of one million, and three 
hundred chariots, “ Asa cried unto the 


THE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 107 

&> 

Lord his God, and said, Lord, it is noth¬ 
ing for thee to help, whether with many, 
or with them that have no power: help 
us, O Lord our God ; for we rest on thee, 
and in thy name we go against this mul¬ 
titude. O Lord, thou art our G od ; let 
not man prevail against thee. So the 
Lord smote the Ethiopian before Asa, 
and before Judah; and the Ethiopians 
fled .”—2 C/iron. xiv. 11, 12. “Accord¬ 
ing to thy faith be it unto thee.” 

In each case the people knew but little 
of Jehovah. They feared the Lord and 
served their own gods . 11 “ Now for a long 
season Israel had been without the true 
God, and without a teaching priest, and 
without law. But when they in their trou¬ 
ble did turn unto the Lord God of Israel, 
and sought Him, He was found of them,” 
just in proportion to their faith. (See the 
history in 2 Chron. xiii. xiv. xv. and xvi.) 

THE CASE OF GIDEON, 

Furnishes another illustration in point 
“ The children of Israel did evil in the 


108 TIIE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 
sight of the Lord, and the Lord delivered 

o 7 

them into the hand of Midian, # * and 
Israel was greatly impoverished because 
of the Midianites. And they cried unto 
the Lord, * # and the Lord sent a proph¬ 
et, who said unto them, Thus saith the 
Lord God of Israel, I brought you up 
from Egypt and brought you forth out of 
the house of bondage, and I delivered 
you out of the hand of the Egyptians and 
out of the hand of all that oppressed you 
and drove them out from before you and 
gave you their land, and I said unto you 
I am the Lord your God. Fear not the 
gods of the Amorites in whose land you 
dwell. But ye have not obeyed my voice.” 

And the Angel of Jehovah appeared 
to Gideon and bade him break down the 
altar of Baal and cut down his grove, and 
then, in the name of Jehovah, go against 
the enemy. After much hesitancy and 
many excuses, he finally obeys the man¬ 
date. Baal’s altar is demolished, and an 
altar to Jehovah built, bearing the inscrip- 


THE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 109 


tion, “ Jehovah Shalom,” The God of 
peace. And “ the spirit of the Lord came 
upon Gideon and he blew his trumpet” 
and an army of thirty-two thousand is 
enrolled. 

“ And the Lord said unto Gideon, the 
people that are with thee are too many for 
me to give the Midianites into their hands , 
lest Israel vaunt themselves against me , 
sayingmy own hand hath saved me. 
Now therefore, go and proclaim in the 
ears of the people, saying, whosoever is 
fearful and afraid , let him return and 
depart early from Mount Gilead, and 
there returned of the people twenty-two 
thousand, and there remained ten thou¬ 
sand. And the Lord said unto Gideon, 
The people are yet too many:” and the 
number is reduced to three hundred. 
These go forth armed (?) with their lamps 
and their trumpets against the foe ; who 
•“ lay along in the valley like grasshoppers 
for multitude, and their camels were with¬ 
out number, as the sand by the sea side 


110 THE BIBLE AGAINST WAR, 

for multitude.’ 7 At a given signal they 
break their pitchers, let their “ light shine,” 
and blowing their trumpets, cry “ The 
sword of the Lord and of Gideon, and 
they stood every man in his place round 
about the camp. And all the host ran r 
and cried , and fled , and the three hun~ 
dred blew the trumpets , and the Lord set 
every man his sword against his fellow, 
even throughout all the host,” See Judg. 
vi. vii. 

Their success was in their standing in 
in their place and blowing the gospel 
trumpet. 

% 

But even here they failed fully to rest 
in God, and elated, took the work into 
their own hands, and so forgot God and 
went a whoring after the golden ephod 
which Gideon made from the spoils of war, 

Alas ! alas! for the woful unbelief and 
wickedness of man ? The heart of the 
sons of men is fully set in them to do evil, 
“ Lord increase our faith P’ 


THE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. Ill 


ANOTHER REASON FOR THEIR PROSPERITY 
IN WAR 

is found in the fact that He often sends 
them against other nations, for the same 
reason He sent Sennacherib against Jeru¬ 
salem, of whom He said, “O Assyrian, 
the rod of mine anger, and the staff in 
their hand is mine indignation. I will 
send him against an hypocritical nation, 
and against the people of my wrath will I 
give him a charge to take the spoil, and 
to take the prey, and to tread them down 
like the mire of the streets. Howbeit He 
meaneth not so, neither doth his heart 
think so; but it is in his heart to de¬ 
stroy and cut oft' nations not a few.”— 
Isa. x. 5, 6, 7. “ Wherefore it shall 

come to pass, that when the Lord hath 
performed his whole work upon Mount 
Zion and on Jerusalem, I will punish the 
fruit of the stout heart of the king of As¬ 
syria, and the glory of his high looks. 
“Shall the axe boast itself against him 
that heweth therewith ? or shall the saw 


112 THE BIBLE AGAINST AVAR. 

magnify itself against him that shak- 
eth it? as if the rod should shake itself 
against them that lift it up, or as if the 
staff should lift up itself as if it were no 
wood.”— Isa. x. 5—7, 12, 15. &c. 

In the same manner we can account 
for the civil wars between Israel and 
Judah generally. 

“ HARDNESS OF HEART ” THE CAUSE OF 

ALL THEIR AVAR. 

So it was “ because of the hardness of 
their hearts that God even used them as 
instruments of destruction. 

Their exodus from Egypt, their whole 
history, their being carried away captives 
into Babylon , shows that it was not with 
God’s approval that they waged war. Of 
their own choice, and according to their 
own plan “ they took the sword,” and 
they finally “ perished by the sword." 

True, for his own name's sake among 
the heathen , He often blessed them, but 
much more would his name have been 


TIIE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 113 


honored and revered had they been will¬ 
ing to hold their peace” stand still and 
see the salvation of Jehovah. Then could 
they have sung the song of Moses and the 
Lamb, and said truly, “The Lord is my 
strength and song, and He is become my 
salvation: He is my God, and I will pre¬ 
pare Him an habitation; my father’s God, 
and I will exalt him.” — Ex. xv. 2. Je¬ 
hovah is a man of war, the Lord is his 
name. “ Who is like unto Thee, O Lord, 
among the gods ? who is like Thee, glori¬ 
ous in holiness, fearful in praises, doing 
wonders?” * * “ Thou in Thy mercy 

hast led forth the people which Thou hast 
redeemed: Thou hast guided them in 
Thy strength unto Thy holy habitation.” 
— Ex. xv. 11, 13. “The people shall 
hear and be afraid.” * # “Fear and 

dread shall fall upon them : by the great¬ 
ness of Thine arm they shall be as still as 
a : stone.” — Ex. xv: 2, 3, 11,13—16. 

Then too could they have united with 
Jehoshaphat saying, “Not unto us, O 


114 TIIE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 

Lord, not unto us, but unto Thy name 
give glory, for Thy mercy, and for Thy 
truth’s sake. Wherefore should the 
heathen say, Where is now their God? 
But our God is in the heavens; lie hath 
done whatsoever lie pleased. Their idols 
are silver and gold, the work of men’s 
hands. They have mouths, but they speak 
not; eyes have they, but they see not: 
they have ears, but they hear not; noses 
have they, but they smell not; they have 
hands, but they handle not; neither speak 
they through their throat. They that 
make them are like unto them; so is 
every one that trusteth in them. O Israel, 
trust thou in the Lord; He is their help 
and their shield. O house of Aaron, trust 
in the Lord; He is their help and their 
shield. Ye that fear the Lord, trust in 
the Lord: He is. their help and their 
shield. The Lord hath been mindful of 
us; He will bless us: He will bless the 
house of Israel, He will bless the house of 
Aaron. He will bless them that fear the 


THE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 115 

Lord, both small and great. The Lord 
shall increase you more and more, you 

and vour children. Ye are blessed of the 

•> 

Lord, which made heaven and earth. 
The heaven, even the heavens are the 
Lord’s: but the earth hath He given to 
the children of men. The dead praise not 
the Lord, neither any that go down into 
silence. But we will bless the Lord from 
this time forth and forevermore. Praise 
the Lord.”— -Ps. 115. 

In conclusion, then, I remark, that by 
searching the scriptures, 

1. We find the spirit of the New Testa¬ 
ment to be the spirit of peace, and as the 
Old Testament has the same author, and 
as “ God has not changed,” it also must 
have the same spirit. We find it has. 

2. We find the lovers of war strive in 
vain to extract the spirit of war from the 
example or precepts of Jesus Christ. His 
followers are men of peace, and it is be¬ 
cause the Jews would not become his fol¬ 
lowers that they were men of war. 


116 THE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 

3. We find the Bible regards war offen¬ 
sive or defensive, as a curse to all en¬ 
gaged in it, inflicted only on .he dis - 
obedient and believing. Of course 
God does not inflict curses on the obe¬ 
dient and faithful. Wars and fightings 
come from men’s lusts as self-inflicted 
judgments for sin. 

4. We find the Bible regards peace as 
a great blessing promised to obedience and 
faith. The faithful and obedient have 
rest, and enjoy the fruits of the land. 

5. We find that even with the faint 
light the Jews possessed, they had no war 
while they walked in that light. So long 
as they were willing to follow the pillar of 
cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night 
and go where and as God led them, all 

* 

was well. But they refused to obey, nei¬ 
ther were they mindful of the wonders 
God did among them, but hardened their 
necks and in their rebellion appointed a 
captain to return to their bondage “and 
sent men before them to search out the 


THE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 117 


land and bring them word by what way 
they should come” &c., that is they did 
not wish Jehovah as a leader, so He gave 
them up to their owui stubbornness and 
they walked according to their own plan. 
And by bitter experience they found they 
could not “ lie down safely,” while they 
trusted to their swords 

6. Substituting war for slaverv, how 
applicable the language of T. I). Weld: 

“ The spirit of (war) never takes refuge in the 
Bible of its own accord. The horns of the altar 
are its last resort. It seizes them, if at all, only 
in desperation—rushing from the terror of the 
avenger’s arm. Like other unclean spirits, it 
hateth the light lest its deeds should be reproved. 
Goaded to madness in its conflict with common 
sense and natural justice, denied all quarter, and 
hunted from every covert, it breaks at last into 
the sacred enclosure, and courses up and down 
the Bible seeking rest and finding none. The 
law of love, streaming from every page, flashes 
around it an omnipresent anguish and despair. 
It shrinks from the hated light, and howls under 
the consuming touch, as the demoniacs recoiled 
from the Son of God, and shrieked “torment us 
not.” At last it slinks among the shadows of the 
Mosaic system, and thinks to burrow out of sight 
among its types and symbols. Vain hope ! Its 
asylum is its sepulchre : its city of refuge, the 


118 TIIE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 

city of destruction. It rushes from light into the 
sun : from heat, into devouring fire ; and from the 
voice of God into the thickest of his thunders.” 

Blessed be God, lie does not require us 
to avenge our wrongs. Our rights , our 
lives, and our sacred honor are secure. 
“ The name of the Lord is a strong tower. 
The righteous runneth into it and is 
safe.” — Prov. xviii. 10. ’ For the eyes of 
the Lord run to and fro throughout the 
whole earth to show Himself strong in 
the behalf of those whose heart is perfect 
toward Him.”—2 Chron. xvi. 9. 

“There is none like unto the God of 
Jeshurun, who rideth upon the heavens in 
thy help, and in his excellency on the sky. 
The eternal God is thv refuse, and under- 
neath are the everlasting arms. And He 
shall thrust out the enemy from before 
thee, and shall say, Destroy them. Israel 
then shall dwell in safety alone. * * 

Happy art thou, O Israel! who is like 
unto thee, O people saved by the Lord. 
The shield of thy help, and who is the 


THE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 119 


sword of thy excellency, and thine ene¬ 
mies shall be found liars unto thee.”— 
Deut. xxxiii. 27,29. 

“ The angel of the Lord encampeth 
round about them that fear Him, and de- 
• livereth them. * * The eves of the 

Lord are upon the righteous, and his ears 
are open to their cry. The face of the 
Lord is against them that do evil, to cut 
off the remembrance of them from the 
earth.”— Ps. xxxiv. 7, 15, 16. See the 
whole psalm. \£J =3 1 Pet. iii. 8—18. 
Ps. lxi. 

My defense is of God, who saveth the 
upright in heart.”— Ps. v ii. 10. “Thou 
art my hiding place and my shield.”— Ps. 
cxix: 114. Ps. xxxii. 7. “The Lord 
is my strength and song, and He is be¬ 
come my salvation .”—Ex xv. 2. “The 
Lord is my defense, and my God is the 
rock of my refuge.’— Ps. xciv. 22. See 
also Ps. Ixii. 

“ d'he Lord is my rock and my fortress, 
and my deliverer: the God of my rock, in 


120 THE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 


Him will I trust: He is my shield, and the 
horn of my salvatiun, my high tower and 
mv refuse: my Savior : Thou savest me 

•• o 

from violence * * As for God, his 

way is perfect.” * * “ He is a buck¬ 

ler to all that trust in Him.”—2 Sam. xxii. <s 
See also Isa. xxxiii. 15, 1G; Zech. xii. 

8—18; Ps. lxi. 3, 4; Prov. xviii. 10. 

2 Chron. xxxii. 7, 8; Gen. xv. 1 ; Ps. 
xxviii. 7,8; Ps. xxxiii. 20; Ps. lxxxiv. 
11; &c., &c. 

Such is the language of the Old Testa¬ 
ment saints. I\ T ow if they had so much 
ground for confidence in God, how much 
more we who live under the blazing light 
of the cross, with “ legions of angels,” 
(Malt, xxv i. 52, 53,) at our service, “sent 
forth to minister to them that shall be 
heirs of salvation,” (Heh. i. 14,)—assured 
of our Savior tliat our “ angels do always 
behold the face of his Father in heaven,” 
(4 Iatt. xviii: 10; assured too, that “all 
things work together for good to them 
who love God,” (Rom. viii. 28; that 


TIIE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 


121 


every occasion of suffering shall “ turn to 
us for a testimony,” (Luke xxi. 13,) and 
so give an opportunity to bear witness 
to the blessed savor of meekness, for¬ 
giveness, patience and love. 

O, if God had occasion, by way of 
complaint, to say of Israel, “ Hath a na¬ 
tion changed their gods ? But my people 
have changed their glory for that which 
doth not profit. Be astonished, O ye 
heavens at this, and be horribly afraid; 
be ye very desolate, saith the Lord, For 
my people have committed two evils: 
They have forsaken me, the fountain of 
living waters, and hewed them out cis¬ 
terns, broken cisterns, that can hold no 
water:” ( Jer . ii. 11—13:) how infin¬ 
itely more guilty are we if we neglect so 
great salvation. Jesus is our Savior. A 
Savior from hell—a Savior from sin —a 
Savior from all our enemies. “ Blessed 
be the Lord God of Israel, for He hath 
visited and redeemed his people, and hath 
raised up an horn of salvation for us, in 


122 THE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 

the house of his servant David; as He 

/ 

spake by the mouth of his holy prophets 
which have been since the world began, 
that we should be saved from our enemies , 
and from the hand, of them that hate us } 
to perform the mercy promised to our 
fathers, and to remember his holy cove¬ 
nant, the oath which he sware to our 
father Abraham, that he would grant us 
that we, being delivered out of the hand of 
our enemies, might serve Him without 
fear in holiness and righteousness before 
Him all the days of our life .—Luke i. 
68—75. 


“How sweet the name of Jesus sounds 
In a believer’s ear.” 

To you therefore who believe He is 
precious. “ Whom have I in heaven but 
thee, and 1 desire none upon earth beside 
thee,” is the language of all who really 
know Jesus Christ. He is the “Ancient 
of days.” “ Thousand thousands min- 
ister unto Him. Ten thousand times ten 


THE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 123 

thousand stand before Him,” (Dan. vii. 
9, 10;) and “ this God is our God forever 
and ever. He will be our guide even 
unto death.”— Fs. xlviii. 14. Then since 
Jehovah is the strength of my life, of 

whom shall I be afraid? 

•« 

We may indeed suffer “ tribulation, or 
distress, or persecution, or famine, or na¬ 
kedness, or peril, or sword.” For Christ’s 
sake we may be “ killed all the day long, 
and accounted as sheep for the slaughter,” 
yet not a hair of our head shall perish. 
If in patience we possess our souls, “ in 
all things we are more than conquerors 
through Him that loved us.”— Rom. viii. 
31—39; Luke xxi. 12—19. 

We are ready then to give an answer 
to every one who asketh us, a reason of 
the hope that is in us with meekness and 
fear.—1 Pet. iii. 8—18. 

The conclusion of the whole matter is 
summed up in the following lines: 


N * 


124 THE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 

. * 

THE BELIEVER AND HIS ECHO. 

B. “True faith, producing love to God and man: 

Say, Echo is not this the gospel plan ! 

E. The gospel plan. 

B. Must I my faith in Jesus constant show, 

By doing good to all, both friend and foe 1 

E. Both friend and foe. 

B. But if a brother hates and treats me ill, 
Must I return him good, and love him still 1 

E. Love him still. 

B. If he my failings watches to reveal, 

Must I his faults as carefully conceal ? 

E. As carefully conceal. 

B. But if my name and character he tears, 

And cruel malice too, too plain appears: 
And when I sorrow and affliction know, 

He loves to add unto my cup of wo: 

In this uncommon, this peculiar case, 

Sweet echo, say, must I still love and bless 1 
E. Still love and bless. 

B. Whatever usage ill I may receive, 

Must I still pitient be and still forgive! 

E. Still pitient be and still forgive. 

B. Why echo, how is this 1 thou art sure a 
dove, 


TIIE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 


125 


IJhy voice will teach me nothing else than 
love 1 

E. Nothing else than love. 

B. Amen, with all my heart: then be it so. 
’Tis all delightful, just and good I know: 
And now to practice I’ll directly go. 

E. Directly go. 

B. Have I no cause to fear, though man afflict. 
May I be sure my Savior will protect! 

E. My Savior will protect. 

B. Henceforth on Him I’ll roll my every care. 
And both my friend and foe embrace in 
prayer ? 

E. Embrace in prayer. 

B. But after all, these duties, when they’re 
done, 

Must I in point of merit them disown, 

And rest my soul on Jesus’ blood alone J 

E. On Jesus blood alone. 

B. Echo—enough—thy counsel to my ear. 

Is sweeter than to flowers the dew-drop tear, 
Tby wise instructive lessons please me well, 
Till next we meet again. Farewell! 
farewell! 


E. Farewell ! farewell I” 


OBJECTIONS. 


ROMANS XIII. GIVES FULL AUTHORITY FOR 
THE USE OF THE SWORD. 

Then we may use it. But before placing 
our hand to the hilt, let us prayerfully 
examine our commission, lest while the 
“ pound of flesh” is granted, we find our¬ 
selves forbidden to take “ one drop of 
blood.” 

A KEY FOR THE RIGHT INTERPRETATION OF 
THE CHAPTER, 

And first we need a stand point from 
which we can “ take our reckoning.” 
This we have in the context. “ Let love 
be without dissimulation. Abhor that 


THE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 127 

which is evil: cleave to that which is 
good.” “ Dearly beloved, avenge not 
yourselves, but rather give place unto 
wrath, for it is written, Avenging is mine, 
I will repay, saith the Lord, Therefore 
if thine enemy hunger, feed him, and if 
he thirst, give him drink, for in so doing 
thou shalt heap coals of fire upon his 
head. Be not overcome of evil, but over¬ 
come evil with good. Let every soul be 
subject to the higher powers,” &c. 

The apostle is urging the duty of non- 
resistance to evil, repeating the injunction 
of our blessed Lord to do good to our 
enemies, and submit patiently to wrong 
doing, leaving our cause in the hands of 
of God. There can be no doubt but that 
this is the doctrine of the 12th chapter, 
and its separation from the 13th is one 
of the unfortunate arrangements of the 
chapter makers. Evidently it is not 
Paul’s arrangement. The subject is one. 
“Avenge not yourselves,” — overcome 


128 THE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 

I 

evil with good.” “ Let every soul be 
subject,” &c. 

But we are elevated still higher on our 
observatory, if we mark the circumstances 
under which Paul wrote. lie was writing 
to the Christians at Rome. They of 
course would understand his instructions 
as applying to them under the circum¬ 
stances in which they were placed. They 
were at that time smarting under the lash 
of tyrannical power, and were keenly 
alive to the injustice of being compelled 
to pay taxes to the very government 
which was crushing them. The passage 
must be so construed as to meet their 
case. Hence in chapter xii, he lays down 
great fundamental principles, thereby 
greatly to prepare the way for the hum¬ 
bling, unwelcome truth he presents in 
chapter xiii. This is the pivot on which 
the interpretation of the passage turns. 
Let it be kept constantly in mind. The 
apostle is simply teaching Christian sub¬ 
jection. See Barnes’Notes on this chapter. 


THE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 129 


The objector insists that in tins chap¬ 
ter we are taught to obey and support 
government,—governments sustained by 
the sword,—but the construction neces¬ 
sary to give this idea is open to the fol¬ 
lowing objections: 

1. It assumes that submission is synon¬ 
ymous with obedience. The words, 
though sometimes synonymous, are not 
usually nor necessarily so. According to 
Webster, “ Submission is the act of yield¬ 
ing to power or authority. Surrender of 
the person and power to the control or 
government of another.” Obedience is 
**compliance with a command” And 
whenever our duties to civil rulers are 
spoken of, the term “ submit” or “ be sub¬ 
ject is used in every case but one. That 
is Titus iii. 1. Here the term translated 
“obey magistrates” is “ peitharkein” 
which is “ to yield submission to author¬ 
ity.” Neither the word “ magistrates” 
nor “obey” is necessarily included in the 
original. 


130 THE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 

2. Using the term “be subject,” as 
synonymous with “obey,” exceptions 
must be made such as neither the text 
nor scripture in general admits. “ Submit 
yourselves to every ordinance of man for 
the Lord's sake ."—1 Pet. ii. 13. Yet 

Barnes savs. “there were cases in which 

* * 

it was right to resist the laws, [!!] * * 
when the laws interfered with the rights 
of conscience, when they commanded 
the worship of idols, or any moral wrong, 
then it was their duty to refuse submis¬ 
sion. [!!] * * We are not to infer 

“ that it is our duty always to submit to 
them. Their requirements may be op¬ 
posed to the laws of God, and then we 
are to obey God rather than man— 
[confounding submit with obey.] 

Again he thus explains “ whosoever rc- 
gisteth.” “ They * * who oppose the 
regular execution of the laws. It is im¬ 
plied, however, that those laws shall not 
be such as to violate the right of con¬ 
science, or oppose the laws of God.” 


TIIE BIBLE AGAINST WAK. 131 

Once more, in explaining the phrase 
“Resisteth the ordinance of God,” he 
adds, “ If the government is established, 
and if its decisions are not a manifest 
violation of the laws of God, we are to 
submit to them.” And then on the clause, 
“ For rulers are not a terror,” he says, 
“ The apostle here speaks of rulers in 
general. It may not be universally true 
that they are not a terror to good works, 
for many of them have persecuted the 
good.” 

Thus on almost every point, an if, a 
but , an exception , or denial under certain 
circumstances, is necessary with his con¬ 
struction, and so the required submission 
is virtually frittered away. The circum¬ 
stances of the Christians at Rome brought 
them under the exceptions to the rule. 
Many of the Roman laws did “ violate 
the rights of conscience, and oppose the 
laws of God.” Their “ decisions” in ref¬ 
erence to Christians were generally “a 
manifest violation of the laws of God 


£32 


THE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 


so that indeed Paul is made to teach re¬ 
bellion under cover of submission! Was 
this his design? Yea more, as resisting 
government is resisting God, Paul is thus 
made to teach rebellion against God, and 
to do it, too, in lace of threatened dam¬ 
nation ! Can this construction be the 
right one ? 

TIIE TEXT. 

Let us now take each phrase separately, 
and interpret it in the light of the con¬ 
text and parallel passages, and thus have 
the Bible explain itself. 

We have seen from the context that,the 
apostle was speaking of submission. The 
same subject is continued. Let every 
soul be subject to the higher powers. No 
exceptions. 

Submit yourselves to every ordinance 
of man for the Lord’s sake. “ Likewise 
ye younger submit yourselves to the 
elder, yea all of you be subject one to an¬ 
other.—1 Pet. ii. “ Servants be subject 


THE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 133 

to your own masters, not only to the 
good and gentle but also to the froward.” 
“ I say unto you that 3 7 e resist not evil.” 
We are here taught, not the use of the 
sword, but simply submission to its use— 
but submission to authority or power does 
not necessarily imply the rightfulness of 
the authority any more than submission 
to the blow implies the rightfulness to 
smite, and yet the Savior says, “If a 
man smite thee on the right cheek turn 
to him the other also.” He also says, 
be subject, &c. Submission without re¬ 
sistance, is one thing ,—obedience quite 
another thing. 

REASON FOR SUBMISSION. 

“ Let every soul be subject to the high¬ 
er powers,” “ For there is no power but 
of God.” “ If thou seest the oppression 
of the poor, and violent perverting of 
judgment and justice in a province, 
Marvel not at the matter, for He that is 
higher than the highest regardeth.”— Eccl. 

F 


134 THE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 

v. 8. “ He will cause the wrath of man 

to praise Him and the remainder of wrath 
will He restrain.” Hence when Pilate 
said to Jesus, “ Knowest thou not that I 
have power to crucify thee and have pow¬ 
er to release thee.” Jesus answered, 
“ Thou couldst have no power against 
me except it were given thee from above.” 
— Jno. xix. 10,11. So “ spake the Lord 
to Paul in the night by a vision. Be not 
afraid but speak and be not silent, Be 
cause I am with thee and no one shall 
impose upon thee to hurt thee .”—{Acts 
xix. 9, 10.) So Christ said to his disciples, 
* Nothing shall by any means hurt you.” 
(Luke x. 19.) 

CASE OF DANIEL. 

“ 0 Daniel, servant of the living God , 
is thy God, whom thou servest continually, 
able to deliver thee from the lions ? * * 
My God hath sent his angel and hath shut 
the lions' mouths , that they have not hurt 
me, forasmuch as before Him innocency 


THE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 135 

was found in me, and also before thee, 0 
king, have I done no hurt. * * So Daniel 
was taken up out of the den and no man¬ 
ner of hurt was found upon him, because 
he believed in his God.”—Dan vi. 20, 23. 
There is no power to injure except per¬ 
mitted of God. 

f 

CASE OF SHADRACH, MESHACH AND ABED- 

NEGO. 

“ And who is that God who shall de¬ 
liver you out of my hands?” said the 
proud Nebuchadnezzar to Shadrach, Me- 
shach and Abednego, who “ answered to 
the king. O Nebuchadnezzar, we are not 
careful to answer thee in this matter. If 
it is best, our God whom we serve is able 
to deliver us from the burning fiery fur¬ 
nace and He will deliver us out of thine 
hand , 0 king. But if not, be it known 
to thee O king, that we will not serve thy 
gods nor worship the golden image which 
thou has set up.” The faithful non-resist- 
ants are indeed thrown into the “ burning 


136 THE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 

fiery furnace,” which is made so hot that 
their persecutors are consumed by its 
flames, but upon them “the fire had no pow¬ 
er nor was a hair of their head singed, 
neither were their coats changed, nor the 
smell of fire had passed on them. Then 
Nebuchadnezzar spake, and said, Blessed 
be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and 
Abednego, who hath sent his angel, and 
delivered his servants that trusted in Him, 
and have changed the king’s word, and 
yielded their bodies, that they might not 
serve or worship any god, except their 
own God. # * There is no other God that 
can deliver after this sort.”—See Dan. iii. 

Here is submission , but not obedience ; 
and one reason why they submit is, be¬ 
cause they are conscious “ there is no 
power but of Go d.” 

“ THE POWERS THAT BE ARE ORDAINED OP 

GOD.” 

That is, it is said, 

44 God hath appointed human governments as a 
part of the moral government of God, and as 


THE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 137 


sitch they are to be sustained by Christians, 
whatever form they may assume. Consequently, 
in certain states of society, it would be a Chris¬ 
tian duty to pray for and sustain even a military 
despotism; in a certain other state of society to 
pray for and sustain a monarchy ; and in other 
states to pray for and sustain a republic ; and in 
a still more advanced stage of virtue and intelli¬ 
gence, to pray for and sustain a democracy; if 
indeed a democracy is the most wholesome form 
of seZ/’-government, which may admit a doubt.” 
— Prof. Finney’s Sk. Lee. on Theol. page 247. 

With Prof. Finney I agree that human 
governments are a necessity of human 
nature,” and that “ this necessity will 
continue as long as human beings exist in 
this world,” and that human legislation 
imposes moral obligation, 1. not when it 
requires what is inconsistent with moral 
law. 2. Not when it is arbitrary, or not 
founded in right reason. 3. But it always 
imposes moral obligation, when it is in 
accordance w 7 ith moral law.” 

“ It follows that no government is lawful or 
innocent, that does not recognize the moral law, 
as the only universal law, and God as the Supreme 
Lawgiver and Judge, to whom nations in their 
national capacity, as well as all individuals, are 


138 THE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 

amenable. The moral law of God is the law of 
individuals and of nations, and nothing can be 
rightful government but such as is founded and 
administered in its support.— Sk. Theol. 235,238, 
and &ys. Theol. 435. 

To all this I heartily say, Amen, and 
therefore I do not admit that Christians 
are to sustain a military despotism , be¬ 
cause it is “ arbitrary and not founded in 
right reason” and because it is “incon¬ 
sistent with the moral law” The very 
idea of despotism excludes God from the 
throne, and his law from the statute book. 
Faith in God and faith in a military des¬ 
pot, are as opposite as heaven and hell. 
The Bible every where recognizes GOD 
as the “ Supreme Lawgiver,” and his 
will, not a despot's, as law. But more of 
this anon. 

WAS THE ROMAN GOVERNMENT APPOINTED 

OF GOD? 

It is admitted that government accord¬ 
ing to God's plan, is an appointment of 
God. But in what sense have the gov- 


THE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 139 

ernments of this world been ordained of 
God, and in what sense have the rulers of 
the government of this 4 world been ap¬ 
pointed of God ? 

The powers that be at least include the 
Roman power, and to the Roman Chris¬ 
tians, Paul was understood to mean no 
other. (See Gibbon.) How was that 
government “ ordained of God,” and its 
rulers originally appointed. 

History tells us that the city was built 
by the marauding shepherds, Romulus and 
Remus, who consulted the heathen oracle , 
not the Lord, as to who w r as to have the 
direction in building it. When built, it 
was opened “ as a sanctuary for all male¬ 
factors, slaves, &c., who constituted the 
main part of the inhabitants. They chose 
Romulus “as their king, who was accord¬ 
ingly acknowledged chief of their reli¬ 
gion, sovereign magistrate of Rome, and 
general of the army. Besides a guard to 
attend his person, it was determined that 
he should always be preceded, wherever 


140 THE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 

he went, by another of twelve men, 
armed with axes, tied up in a bundle of 
rods, and who were to execute the laws, 
and impress his new subjects with a high 
idea of his authority. The principal re¬ 
ligion of that age consisted in a firm reli¬ 
ance on the soothsayers, who pretended 
from observations on the flight of birds 
and the entrails of beasts, to direct the 
present and dive into the future. Romu¬ 
lus , by an express law , commanded that no 
election should be made , no enterprise un¬ 
dertaken, without first consulting them.” 
— Grimshaw's Rome , pages 13, 14. 

Is this the mode of God’s establishing 
government?—this the way lie commis¬ 
sions his agents ? Then verily the gov¬ 
ernment of hell is appointed of God, and 
therefore we are to pray for and sustain 
Satan as the prince of the power of the 
air. No, no ! Such governments are not 
the creatures of God’s approval. We are 
not to pray that they may be sustained, 
but that they may be broken to pieces by 


THE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 141 

the “ stone cut out without hands , and the 
righteous kingdom of Jesus Christ estab¬ 
lished on their ruins. “ That the king¬ 
doms of this world may become the 
kingdoms of our Lord and his Christ, and 
that He may reign forever and ever.” 
That the thrones may be cast down, and 
the ancient of days may sit. When thus 
the kingdom is given to Christ and his 
saints, then as his faithful subjects we 
will sustain it. But in Paul’s day the 
kingdoms of this world belonged to Satan. 
Jesus Christ did not accede to the condi¬ 
tion on which the arch deceiver, the devil, 
proffered them to Him. And O, that all 
of his professed followers, when on the 
same condition they have been offered 
preferment, had with the Savior said, 
“ Get thee behind me, Satan, for it is writ¬ 
ten thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, 
and Him only shalt thou serve.” 

The governments appointed of God are 
such as acknowledge God’s right to ap¬ 
point—such as acknowledge Him as the 


142 THE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 

Lawgiver. Bnt none will contend that 
the Roman government can be included 
under this head. Of course, therefore, 
Paul could not have meant that they were 
appointed of God, and to give the pass¬ 
age that interpretation does violence alike 
to common sense and the original text. 
Says Barnes, “ this w r ord ‘ ordained’ de¬ 
notes the ordering or arrangement which 
subsists in a military company or army. 
God sets them in order, assigns them 
their location, changes and directs them 
as He pleases. Redirects and controls,” 
&c. He arranges them so as best to 
serve his purposes. Then the simple im¬ 
port of the text is this. The existing 
powers are under God’s control. Your 
oppressors, even, are so controlled of 
God that He will accomplish his own 
purposes, and make all work together for 
good, and so the clause is simply inten¬ 
sive or explanatory of the preceding. 

Let every soul be subject to the higher 
powers, for there is no power but of God, 


THE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 143 

THE POWERS THAT BE ARE CONTROLLED 

OF GOD. 

“ He removeth kings and setteth up 
kings. The Most High ruleth in the king¬ 
dom of men and gi veth it to whomsoever he 
will, and setteth up over it the basest of 
men.”— Dan. ii. 21, iv. 17. “I have 
strength. # # By me kings reign.”— Prov. 
viii. 15, 16. O blessed thought! Our 
God is an Almighty Sovereign. He has 
the same control of nations that He has 
of individuals, and no one hath any pow¬ 
er to hurt us. If God places us in cir¬ 
cumstances of great trial, he thereby de¬ 
signs either to bring us to repentance for 
our sins, or give us an opportunity to mag¬ 
nify his power and the riches of his grace, 
as in the case of Daniel, of Shadrach, Me- 
shach and Abednego, and the whole list, 
who have been counted worthy to suffer 
shame for his name. He doeth all things 
well, but frequently “ his ways are not our 
ways, nor his thoughts our thoughts.” 
They are as far above ours, as Heaven is 


144 THE BIBLE AGAINST WAR# 

above the earth. How wonderful the 
history of Joseph! How mysterious to 
Jacob, at the time, were God’s dealings 
with him. But Joseph, in consoling his 
conscience-stricken brethren after their 
father’s death, says, “ as for you, ye 
thought evil against me. God meant it 
for goody So God ever has his own 
plans for good, and frequently, as in the 
case of Joseph, uses rulers, wicked rulers , 
to accomplish his purposes. And the 
powers that be are so controlled of God, 
and He is so accomplishing his purposes 
by them that 

WHOSOEVER THEREFORE KESISTETH THE 

POWER RESISTETII THE ARRANGEMENT 

OF GOD. 

“ They who resist, by themselves shall 
receive the punishment.” That is, the 
punishment is self-inflicted by the very 
act of opposition, and this is the exact 
meaning of the original, and the facts of 
universal history, attest the truth of it. 


THE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 145 

As an illustration in point, see the histo¬ 
ry of the Jewish captivity, found in Jer, 
xxiv,—xxxii. 

THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR AN ILLUSTRA¬ 
TION IN POINT. 

Our own revolutionary struggle affords 
another striking illustration of the truth 
that they who resist, shall receive to 
themselves damnation. 

Our fathers left the mother country to 
escape religious tyranny, but had hardly 
breathed the air of freedom, before they 
in turn began to lay the same oppressive 
yokes on the necks of the Baptists and 
Quakers. They also persecuted to the 
death many innocent ones accused of 
witchcraft. They invaded the rights of 
the red man of the forest, and when in¬ 
censed, instead of winning him by the 
gospel, as did William Penn, drove him 
to a returnless distance by cruelty and 
revenge; and so in various ways provoked 
the God of heaven to say, “ Shall I not 


146 THE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 

visit for these things, and shall not my 
soul be avenged on such a nation as this ?” 
—(Jer . v. 9—29 ; ix. 9.) 

When God, as a punishment for our 
sins, began to give us a moiety of the 
dregs of oppression, had we repented, and 
by fasting, supplication and prayer, sought 
the Lord, the curse might evidently have 
been averted—and then—having put 
away our trangressions—in “returning 
and rest,” we might have been “ saved.” 
Had every soul been subject to the then 
existing powers, and “ by meekness in¬ 
structed those who opposed” us, our fath¬ 
ers and brothers who were in the British 
soldiery, could never have engaged in the 
fratricidal butchery as they did. But we 
not only violated this plain injunction of 
heaven, but even provoked hostilities by 
revenge for minor wrongs ; dared them 
to fire, and then resisted unto blood, 
striving against military power—they re¬ 
sisted, and received the consequent dam¬ 
nation. The withering curse of war was 


THE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 147 


permitted to sweep over the land, deso¬ 
lating the whole country, and poisoning 
the whole atmosphere. Sayin g nothing 
of the human gore that moistened our 
soil—nothing of the millions of property 
destroyed and money expended—nothing 
of the thousands upon thousands of valu¬ 
able lives sacrificed to Moloch—what 
havoc of virtue was made—what a flood¬ 
gate of vice was opened! Says General 
Washington, 

“ Our conflict is not likely to cease so soon as 
every good man could wish. The measure of our 
iniquity is not yet full; for speculation, peculation, 
engrossing, forestalling, with all their concomit¬ 
ants, afford too many proofs of the decay of public 
virtue , and too glaring instances of its being the 
interest and desire of too many who would be 
thought friends, to continue the war!” “Such a 
6pirit of avarice and peculatum,” says one of our 
own historians, “ had crept into the public de¬ 
partments, and taken a deep hold of the majority 
of the people , as Americans a few years before 
were thought incapable of.” This was the effect 
of the war. “ There sprang up during the war,” 
says another, “ a race of men who sought to 
make private advantage out of the public distress. 
This public pest spread wider every day, and fi¬ 
nally gangrened the very heart of the state.” 


148 THE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 


“ The Christians of that day took a still more 
serious view of the case. A Presbytery in New 
England , all friends of the war itself, published a 
volume to illustrate and arrest its malign influ¬ 
ences upon the moral character of the community. 
They specify the vices and sins that had become 
most prevalent. “ The profanest language,” say 
they, “ is become the fashionable dialect. The 
youth, that was bred in innocence, and was never 
heard to defile his tongue with one profane oath 
in his life, no sooner gets on board a privateer, 
or has spent a few days in a camp, than we find 
him learned in all the language of hell. 

“ Corruption, fraud and cruelty grew apace. 
4 Benevolence to our fellow-men,’ say they, ‘ was 
perhaps never less cultivated in any country, than 
of late among us. Hard-hearted indifference to 
the distress of the poor, the widow and the or¬ 
phan, has risen up, and seized her throne. The 
base-born spirit of selfishness never had so un¬ 
restrained sway in this land. This has cut out 
work for all the passions, and kept them in con¬ 
stant employ. Pride and false honor have disgrac¬ 
ed our armies with the barbarous practice of duelling , 
and friends have imbued their hands in the blood 
of friends, while the connivance of superiors 
has given sanction to the crime. Avarice stalks 
in the streets, or lurks in the corners, and has 
stained the public roads with inhuman murders. 
Avarice and extortion were never carried here 
to such lengths. Fraud and oppression sweep 
all before them ; while debauchery aud vice fill both 
town and country. Glaring instances of pecula¬ 
tion , and breach of public trust, are sheltered 
and uncensured ; and private robbery, thefts, and 
burglaries abound more and more.* 


THE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 149 


“ Intemperance, also, is become sadly common 
among us men; and this monster, not content 
with human sacrifices among men, and with mak¬ 
ing shipwreck of many professors of religion 
too, has begun to ravage and destroy even the 
gentler sex !’ It is well known that the war of 
our revolution was the starting point, the great 
fountain of our national intemperance. 

“ Licentiousness, however, was perhaps the 
foulest offshot of the war. “It is well known 
that this period never had its parallel in Ameri¬ 
ca for the prevalence of all the vices of sensuality. 
Uncleanness is awfully increased ; ante-nuptial 
fornications are so frequent and so slightly cen¬ 
sured, that it has almost ceased to be regarded 
as a crime; adulteries are excused under the 
name of gallantries ; books utterly unfit for the 
modest eye, are published avowedly on purpose 
to teach intrigue as a science; and the poison¬ 
ous letters of a British nobleman are eagerly 
bought up, read, and commended as a standard 
of politeness and true taste, though the direct 
tendency is to patronize lewdness, and make the 
world forget that chastity is a virtue .”—Peace 
Manual , pp. 174—176. 

At the time of the revolutionary war 
there were but few slaves, and slavery 
was fast withering away under the scorch¬ 
ing light of advancing truth, as proclaimed 
by a little faithful band of Reformers, 
with Benjamin Franklin at their head. 



150 THE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 

It would soon have died had it not been 
watered by the blood of freemen poured 
forth upon the roots of the great upas 
tree of war, of which slavery is only a 
branch. The spirit of war and slavery is 
one. The spirit of despotism, and this it 
is that has been eating out the vitality of 
our republican government, till now the 
declared fact that all men are created 
equal, and endowed with certain inalien¬ 
able rights, in defense of which our 
fathers pledged their lives and sacred 
honor, is pronounced a “ rhetorical flour¬ 
ish” and one-sixth of the inhabitants of 
the land reduced to the most abject bond¬ 
age that ever cursed the earth—free born 
sons of God sold in the shambles like oxen, 
and the capital of our republic noted for 
nothing more than for its slave prisons 
and slave auctions. True, in the Hall of 
Congress is heard from a Giddings or a 
Hale, the echo of Liberty! but “ Going! 
Going !!” in a sepulchral tone, is at the 
same time heard from the auctioneer, as 


THE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 151 

he raises his hammer over the head of his 
fellow man, and tears him from his wife 
and children and home forever !! 

Aye, and the angel of Providence would 
have us listen to this her warning voice. 
It is indeed “ Liberty going,” rapidly go¬ 
ing, and already so far gone that now no 
one can be a successful candidate for the 
Presidency who has not been trained in 
the despotic school of war—while at the 
same time a martyr to humanity is incar¬ 
cerated in the cold cell of the prison at our 
capital for attempting to place the cup of 
liberty to the lips of the famished: and 
such is the public disregard to law, to or¬ 
der, to honor, to the rights of man, to jus¬ 
tice, liberty, or even life itself, that if a 
citizen of the United States would pass 
from one state to another to visit his re¬ 
lations and friends, his aged parents even, 
to collect his debts, or more especially to 
“ preach the gospel to the poor,” he must 
leave his manhood and his conscience 
behind him, or be lashed to the whipping 


152 THE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 

post, imprisoned, stationed in the pillory 
and then pelted with addle eggs and 
branded with the red hot iron, or shot. 

Yea more, the ambassador of a sover¬ 
eign state is obliged to flee for his life, 
when the legislature of the state to 
which he is sent, understand his mission 
is justice and humanity. Surely there is 
burning eloquence and truth in the re¬ 
mark of J. C. Calhoun, “If by war v:e be¬ 
come great we cannot be free” Oh that 
our eyes as a nation might be opened to 
our real condition and its cause. This 
lawless spirit of despotism and disregard 
to right was born in our revolutionary 
w r ar, and has been nursed in our military 
code ever since, and by the report of the 
Secretary of our navy, it appears that 

“ A stream of living blood is flowing from the 
backs of American sailors from the first day of 
January, to the last day of December.” That, 
on the lowest estimate, we have an average of 
three hundred lashes of the cat o’ nine tails (2700 
stripes !) for every day in the year, on the backs 
of American seamen!” 


THE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 153 

This blood-sucker, I repeat, is the child 
of despotism, born in our revolutionary 
war. It began to suck the veins of our 
republic as soon as it came into existence, 
and has been fattening on her life-blood 
ever since. Yes, this is what occasions 
her 'pallid and ghastly countenance as 
lately seen in secret conclave, concocting 
plans for self-dissolution, and afterwards in 
the drunken revels andbachannalian fights 
in which our last session of Congress 
closed. Indeed, such is the influence of 
despotic power, that at the close of our 
revolutionary struggle, (having been, even 
for so short a time under its sway,) right 
in the face of the declaration that man 
can govern himself, the crown is offered 
to the commander in chief of our army! 
And had not that Commander-in-chief 
been George Washington our now boast- 
ed form of a Republic would never have 
had even a form. 

Oh how can we close our eyes to the 
fact that we are receiving the damnation 


154 THE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 

consequent upon our “ resisting the ar¬ 
rangement of God” for not obeying 
the holy mandate, “ Let every soul be 
subject to the higher powers.” How dif¬ 
ferent might have been our condition had 
we humbled ourselves before God, and 
then, in the manner appointed of heaven, 
sought the redress of our grievances; 
putting our trust in the Lord and taking 
for our mottos, “ Truth is mighty and 
will prevail,” “ Agitate ! agitate !” “ There 
is no revolution but what is bought too 
dear if it cost one drop of human blood,” 
“ The Lord of hosts is with us, the God 
of Jacob is our refuge.” 

Then might we have had a government 
whose “ officers ” should have been 
“ Peace” and whose “ exactors” “ Right¬ 
eousness” But now, I repeat, the bitter 
fruits of our resisting have been seen in 
the form of licentiousness—intemperance 
-sabbath-breaking—profanity - despotism 
and lawlessness. “ They that resist shall 
receive to themselves damnation.” Oh 


THE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 155 

when shall we learn that God is true to 
his word. “ He is not a man that he 
should lie, nor the son of man that he 
should repentand He hath said, “ The 
fruit of Righteousness is sown in Peace , 
by those who practice Peace.” — {Jas. vi, 
17, 18.) “ Be not deceived, God is not 
mocked; for whatsoever a man soweth, 
that shall he also reap.”— {Gal. vi. 7.) 
“ Do men gather grapes of thorns ? or 
figs of thistles ? Even so every good 
tree bringeth forth good fruit, and every 
corrupt tree bringeth forth corrupt fruit. 
A good tree can not bring forth evil fruit, 
neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good 
fruit.” Oh, how strange then, that from 
age to age, this great, ugly, pestiferous, 
cragged war tree has been reared and 
cultured with so much expense and care 
(watered with the tears of widows and 
orphans, mingled with the heart’s blood 
of husbands, and fathers, and sons,) as if 
expecting righteousness would grow up¬ 
on it! Vain expectation! ! Even Re- 


156 THE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 

publicanism, when engrafted into it, 
brings forth only “ vile Jigs —so vile that 
they can not be eaten. Let it be hewn 
down and cast into the fire.” 

RULERS NOT A TERROR TO GOOD WORKS. 

But another reason why Christians 
should be subject to all higher powers is, 
that they are not “ a terror to good 
works.” By many this is considered as 
synonymous with saying that rulers do 
not persecute the good. But is it so? 
What then mean the many and oft re¬ 
peated warnings of our Savior that Chris¬ 
tians should be brought before rulers and 
many of them put to death? That as 
they had done to the green tree so would 
they do to the dry? that the servant 
should be content to be treated as well as 
his Lord ? If so, how shall we account 
for the fact that the great multitudes of 
Christians have been persecuted by the 
civil power, and many of them actually- 
put to death. That the apostles, with 


THE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 


157 


perhaps a single exception, died by the 
hand of violence ? and from the days 
of Nero to this day, it has generally 
been true that “ he that departeth from 
evil maketh himself a prey?” If so, 
what cruel mockery was this language to 
the Christians, to whom Paul was writ* 
ing—who were cut in pieces and thrown 
into Nero’s fish ponds, and in every way 
tortured for the amusement of that un* 
godly debauchee ? What other construc¬ 
tion, if this be the meaning, could they 
put upon the passage than that the blame 
of their persecutions was on their own 
head ? Did Paul intend to convey this 
idea ? 

The passage declares no such thing. 
It simply states an universal truth, 
namely, that rulers, good or bad, on 
earth or in hell, are not feared by the 
soul who “dwells in God and God in 
him.” To all such our blessed Savior 
says, “ Fear not, little flock, it is your 
Father’s good pleasure to give you th§ 


158 THE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 

kingdom /’—Luke xii. 32. Be not afraid 
of them that kill the body, and after that 
have no more that they can do. But I 
will forewarn you whom ye shall fear. 
Fear Him who after He has killed the 
body, hath power to cast into hell; yea, 
I say unto you, fear Him. Are not five 
sparrows sold for two farthings, and not 
one of them is forgotten before God. 
But. even the very hairs of your head are 
all numbered. Fear not, therefore, ye 
are of more value than many sparrows.” 
—Luke xii. 4—7. 

“ I will never leave thee nor forsake 
thee.” So that we may boldly say, The 
Lord is my helper: I will not fear what 
man shall do unto me.— Ileb. xiii. 5, 6. 
The Lord is my light and my salvation. 
Whom shall I fear ? Jehovah is the de¬ 
fense of my life! of whom shall I be 
afraid? When the wicked, mine ene¬ 
mies and my foes come upon me, to eat 

0 9 

up my flesh, they stumbled and fell. 
Though a host should encamp against 



THE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 159 

me, my heart shall not fear, though war 
should rise against me here will I trusty 

* * for in the time of trouble he shall 
hide me in his pavilion: in the secret of 
his tabernacle shall he hide me: he will 
lift me high upon a rock. Ps. xxvii. 1-3, 
5. God is our refuge and strength, a 
very present help in trouble: therefore 
will not we fear, though the earth be re¬ 
moved and though the mountains be car¬ 
ried into the heart of the seas * the Lord 
of hosts is with us, the God of Jacob is 
our refuge?— Ps. xlvi. 1, 2, 7. Mine en¬ 
emies would daily swallow me up: for 
they be many that fight against me. O 
thou Most High, what time I am afraid, 
I will trust in Thee. In God I will praise 
his word: in God I have put my truSt. I 
will not fear what flesh can do unto me. 

* * When I cry unto thee, then shall 
mine enemies turn back: this I know: for 
God is for me: # * In God have I put my 
trust, I will not be afraid what man can 
do unto me.— Ps. lvi. 2-4 9, 11. The 


160 TIIE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 

Lord is on my side : I will not fear what 
man can do unto me? It is better to 
trust in the Lord than to put confidence 
in Princes. * * The Lord is my strength 
and song and is become my salvation.— 
Ps. cxviii. 6, 8, 9,14. See also, 1 Pt. iii. 
10-18, and Isa. li. 7-16. 

Such is the heart’s ebullition of all who 
love and obey God. To this, the experi¬ 
ence of the righteous gives an universal 
amen. Was Elisha afraid when encom¬ 
passed with a great host of horses and 
chariots sent to take him prisoner ? “ Fear 
not,” he undaunted replies, “ for they that 
be with us are more than they that be 
with them.” 

Was Nebuchadnezzar a terror to Dan¬ 
iel? toShadrach, Meshach,and Abednego? 

Were the “ Rulers,” a “ terror” to Pe¬ 
ter and John ? to Paul and Silas ? to the 
apostles generally ? True they persecut¬ 
ed them to the death. But were they a ter¬ 
ror to them ? Was Martin Luther terri¬ 
fied by the Rulers ? He says: 


THE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 161 

“ I find that Charles has issued an edict to terri¬ 
fy me; but Christ lives, and we shall enter Worms 
in spite of all the councils of hell, and all the 
powers of the air.” When told that he would be 
“ burned alive and his body reduced to ashes, as 
was the case with John Huss”—unmoved he re¬ 
plied, “ though they should kindle a fire whose 
flames should reach from Worms to Wittemberg, 
• and rise up to heaven, I would go through it in the 
name of the Lord, and stand before them i. I would 
enter the jaws of the behemoth, break his teeth, 
and confess the Lord Jesus Christ!” 

When asked by an officer, “ Are you 
the man who has taken in hand to reform 
the papacy. How can you expect to 
succeed ?” Luther responds : 

“ Yes. I am the man. I place my dependence 
upon that Almighty God whose word and com¬ 
mandment is before me.” 

When his beloved Spalatin sent a mes¬ 
sage to him to “ abstain from entering 
Worms f Luther, still unshaken, turned 
his eyes on the messenger and answered: 

“ Go tell your master that though there should 
be as many devils at Worms as there are tiles on 
its roofs, I would enter it.” 

Surely *• rulers are not a terror to good 
works,” Luther was summoned to meet 


162 TIIE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 

the higher powers at Worms, and he 
“ subject to ” those powers, yielded to the 
summons. See D’Aubigne’s history of the 
Reformation, book vii. pp. 214-218, vol 2. 

: ' ’ , < c 

Do you ask the secret of this boldness, 
It is found in the conscious presence of 
God. The consciousness that the pow¬ 
ers that be are so controlled of God that 
he will cause the wrath of man to praise 
Him , and the remainder of wrath He 
will restrain, that He maketh all things 
work together for good to them that love 
God. It is this that leads the soul exult- 
ingly to say: 

“ God near me !—and near me ever ! 

On the land and on the sea; 

Tlius the word that erreth never, 

Thus my life assureth me. 

Ask ye therefore, ‘ Who is nigh thee 1’ 

God is present—God is by me ! 

Death’s dark valley, depths of ocean, 

Prison walls, hide not from God; 

He observes my every motion, 

While at home and while abroad; 


THE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 163 

Let me sit, recline, or stand, 

Everywhere is God at hand. 

God for me !—my consolation, 

All my soul’s desire, is God ; 

Faint I’ll not in tribulation, 

Under crosses and the rod; 

Ask ye, ‘ What consoleth thee V 
Listen—God upholdeth me. 

Want, and pain and death I’ll conquer, 

If my God be only near; 

Satan’s snares I’ll burst asunder, 

Triumph over every fear. 

4 Thou do these things!’ question ye ? 

Nay, nay ; but, my God with me.” 

Then 


44 Why that look of sadness! 
Why that downcast eye ! 
Can no thought of gladness 
Lift thy soul on high! 

Oh thou heir of heaven, 
Think of Jesus’ love, 
While to thee is given 
All his grace to prove. 

* * * * 


164 THE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 

Is thy spirit drooping ? 

Is the tempter near 1 
Still in Jesus hoping, 

What hast thou to fear ?” 

c 

But this absence of fear is peculiar to 
good works, by which I mean the works 
of faith. (“ This is the work of God, that 
ye believe on Him whom He hath sent.”) 
John vi. 29.) Those who have no faith in 
God, have cause to fear. A goading con¬ 
science gives fear—hence the wicked flee 
when no man pursueth, but the righteous 
are bold as a lion.”— Prov. xxviii. 1. The 
workers of iniquity are in great fear where 
no fear is.”— Ps. v. 3; iv. 5. They flee 
when none pursueth, and the sound of a 
shaken leaf shall chase them ; and thev 
shall flee as fleeing from a sword; and 
they shall fall when none pursueth.— Lev. 
xyvi. 17,36. 

“ While he who, attacked by the enemy, holds 
up the buckler of faith,” says Luther, “ is like 
Perseus presenting the head of the Gorgon— 
whoever looks upon it is struck dead. It is thus 
we should hold up the Son of God against the 
snares of the devil.” 


THE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 


165 


“ WILT TIIOU THEN NOT BE AFRAID OF THE 

POWER ?” 

Trust in the Lord, and do good, and 
He will make even thine enemies to be at 
peace with thee. “ Do that which is 
good, and thou shalt have praise of the 
same.” 

It is said “ praise ” here means “pro¬ 
tection” Yes, but saying so does not 
make it so in these days of investigation 
and inquiry. The age now demands the 
why and the wherefore. “ If the passage 
means,” as Barnes says, “ you shall be un¬ 
molested and uninjured,” the proof of 
course will be forthcoming. There are 
multitudes who have complied with the 
condition—have “done good” and so are 
competent witnesses in the case. Let us 
hear their testimony as to the protection 
they have received from the civil power. 
And first, we summons the church at 
Rome, to whom Paul was writing. Call 
forth the Christians accused by Nero of 
wrapping the city in flames, when “ he 


166 THE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 

himself had applied the torch. ^ Let the 
fishponds bear testimony. Go to the am¬ 
phitheatre, and call forth the persecuted 
ones who were made to fight with wild 
beasts for the sport of their “ rulers.” 
And oh, their ghastly, bleeding wounds! 
Charge cruelty upon Paul for calling this 
protection. Aye, and what must Paul 
himself have thought of the protection of 
the sword as he felt its keen edge severing 
his head from the body ? Let us call 
from “ under the altar the souls of them 
that were slain for the word of God and 
for the testimony which they held.”— Rev . 
vi. 9. “ They had 'trial of cruel mockings 
and scourgings, yea, moreover of bonds 
and imprisonments. They were stoned, 
they were sawn asunder, they were tried 
they were put to death by the slaughter of 
the sword ; they wandered about in sheep 
skins and goat skins, being destitute, af¬ 
flicted, tormented , (of whom the world 
was not worthy.) They wandered in 
deserts and mountains and dens and caves 


THE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 


167 


of the earth.”— Heb. xi. 37. Sad pro¬ 
tection ! If this is being “ unmolested 
and uninjured,” when, in the name of hu¬ 
manity, could they be said to be molested 
and injured ? But this testimony com¬ 
ports with the intimation of our Savior 
when He said “ Behold I send you forth 
as sheep in the midst of wolves.” .The un¬ 
divided testimony of the prophets, the 
apostles, the early Christians, of reform¬ 
ers of all ages, under any and every form 
of human civilQ) government, is that those 
who “ do good,” receive the same protec¬ 
tion from the sword, that sheep usually 
receive from wolves. And we can but pity 
the flocks that are advised—while we 
censure the shepherds who advise them— 
to leave the “ fold ” of the “ good shep¬ 
herd,” and go forth to devouring wolves 
for protection! 

“ But if praise here does not mean pro¬ 
tection, what does it mean ?” It means 
praise. Such as Jesus Christ received 
from his executioner, the centurion, when 


168 THE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 

he said, “ Certainhj this was a righteous 
man /” Such as Jesus Christ received 
from Pilate when He said, “ Ye have 
brought this man unto me as one that per- 
verteth the people; and behold I having 
examined before vou, have found no fault 
in this man touching those things whereof 
ye accuse Him. No, nor yet Herod ; for 
I sent you to Him, and lo! nothing 
worthy of death has been done by Him. 
I will therefore chastise and release Him. 

* * And he said unto them the 

third time, Why, what evil hath He 
done? I have found no cause of death 
in Him ; I will therefore chastise Him and 
let Him go.” * * And yet he 

“gave sentence that it should be as they 
desired.”— Luke xxiii. 14—24. Praise , 
but not protection, is here given by the 
“ ruler.” So it w r as with Peter and John: 
Acts iv. 21. So also with Paul and Silas* 
True, Paul at one time received protec¬ 
tion from the mob as a Roman citizen , yet 
he was put to death as a Christian , by 


THE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 169 

the very power of which he is now speak* 
ing. His citizenship saved him from the 
cross , but consigned him to the sword . 
Joseph, Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach and 
Abednego received praise from the rulers 
by whom they were oppressed ; but their 
protection came from Him who is “ higher 
than the highest.” See Gen. xxxix.4, 21, 
22; and xli. 38—44; Dan. iii. 15—30; 
vi. 10—28. So said the officer who had 
been confronted by Martin Luther, “Dear 
friend, there is much in what you say; 
I am a servant of Charles, but your mas¬ 
ter is greater than mine. He will help 
and protect you.” Thompson, Work and 
Burr, in the Missouri state prison, by 
doing good, received praise from their 
rulers! The Mayor of Nashville, in ac¬ 
quainting the mob with the decision of 
the committee of vigilance against me, 
prefaced his sentence of condemnation by 
saying, “ Mr. Dresser appears to be a fine 
young man : he has evidently designed no 
evil,”&c. And the secretary afterwards in 


170 THE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 

defending the action of the committee, 
said, “Dresser had broken no law;” and 
then went on to show that it was neces¬ 
sary for the public good to resort to lynch 
law. And though there was no form of 
law in my trial; yet I was tried by the 
“ rulers ” of the city. Members of the 
committee who passed sentence upon me, 
with whom I had sat at the communion 
table three weeks before, said they be¬ 
lieved me to be a Christian, &c. Yet 
their praise did not protect my naked back 

from the cow-skin. 

• # : ♦ 

We are then to be subject to the higher 
powers, because by “ doing good,” we 
have not only God’s favor, and a con¬ 
scious rectitude of heart that excludes all 
fear , but w^e have even the rulers’ con¬ 
science on our side ; and the consciousness 
of this is sufficient to lift us far above their 
power to destroy our peace. Yea, more; 
this same persecuting power, as in the 
case of Stephen, develops the heavenly 
excellence of the Christian graces, and 


THE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 171 

thus often extorts praise from the perse¬ 
cutors. Hence it is said that several of 
Nero’s soldiers, who at his command be¬ 
headed Paul , were converted to Christi¬ 
anity by the patient spirit with which he 
endured his sufferings, and were them¬ 
selves afterwards put to death as martyrs. 
This is the praise that is received for doing 
good. 

“ FOR HE IS • THE MINISTER OF GOD TO 

THEE FOR GOOD.” 

Again, Paul urges submission to the 
higher powers, from the consideration that 
they are simply God’s ministers for good 
to those who do good. It is said, “ This 
certainly means protection.” Let us 
search and see. Barnes says : 

“The ruler is a servant of God, * * to 

protect you in your rights: to vindicate your 
name, person or property ; and to guard your lib¬ 
erty and to secure to you the rights of your in¬ 
dustry.” 

And yet almost in the next paragraph 
he says: 


172 THE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 


“ That the doctrine respecting the rights of 
civil rulers, and the line which is to be drawn 
between their powers and the rights of con¬ 
science, have been slow to be understood. The 
struggle has been long ; and a thousand persecu- * 
tions have shown the anxiety of the magistrate to 
rule the conscience, and to control religion. In 
pagan countries it has been conceded that the 
ruler had a right to control the religion of a peo¬ 
ple : church and state there have been one. The 
same thing was attempted under Christianity. 
The magistrate still claimed this right and at¬ 
tempted to enforce it. Christianity resisted the 
claim, and asserted the independent and original 
rights of conscience. A conflict ensued, of 
course, and the magistrate resorted to persecu¬ 
tions, to subdue by force the claims of the new reli¬ 
gion and the rights of conscience. Hence the ten 
fiery and bloody persecutions of the primilive 
church. The blood of the early Christians flowed 
like water ; thousands and tens of thousands went 
to the stake, until Christianity triumphed, and the 
right of a religion to a free exercise was ac¬ 
knowledged throughout the empire. It is a mat¬ 
ter of devout thanksgiving that the subject is now 
settled, and the principle is now understood. In 
our own land there exists the happy and bright il¬ 
lustration of the true principle on this great sub¬ 
ject. The rights of conscience are regarded , and 
the laws peacefully obeyed. The civil ruler under¬ 
stands his province; and Christians yield a cor¬ 
dial obedience to the laws. The church and 
state move on in their own spheres, united only 
in the purpose to make men happy and good ! and 
divided only as they relate to different depart- 


THE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 173 


ments, and contemplate, the one, the rights of 
civil society, the other, the interests of eternity. 
Here, every man worships God according to his 
own views of duty; and at the same time, here 
is rendered the most cordial and peaceful obedi¬ 
ence to the laws of the land. Thanks should be 
rendered without ceasing to the God of our fath¬ 
ers for the wondrous train of events by which 
this contest has been conducted to its issue ; and 
for the clear and full understanding which we now 
have of the different departments pertaining to 
the church and state !!” 

“ Here every man worships God ac¬ 
cording to his own views of duty!” In¬ 
deed ! Think you Mr. Barnes has taken 
lessons at Nashville ? Possibly a short 
residence there might prove instructive. 
Should he go there or to South Carolina 
and preach from Luke 4: 18-21. “The 
Spirit of the Lord is upon me because He 
hath annointed me to preach the gospel to 
the poor , He hath sent me to heal the 
broken hearted, to preach deliverance to 
the captives and recovering of sight to 
the blind, to set at liberty them that are 
bruised, to preach the acceptable year of 
of the Lord,” doubtless by the time he 



174 THE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 


has proceeded as far as—“ This day is 
this scripture fulfilled in your ears” he 
will learn by experience how “ the rights 
of conscience are regarded,” have a 
4< bright and happy (?) illustration of the 
true principle on this great subject ,” and 
surely have occasion for “ devout thanks¬ 
giving to God” if he is ever permitted 
to preach again. 

If he prefer to learn the “ true prin¬ 
ciple” otherwise than by personal expe¬ 
rience, let him ask counsel of the Ohio 
Synod of the seceder church, who some 
years ago sent one from their number to 
preach the gospel to the poor at the 
south, who was tarred and feathered, 
rode upon a rail, and barely escaped with 
his life. Let him ask Rev. J. W. Hall, 
formerly of Gallatin, Tennessee, now of 
Dayton, Ohio, who told me in 1835, that 
it was his opinion that if slavery contin¬ 
ued five years there would not be found a 
devoted minister in all the south ; and ad¬ 
ded, “ If I should preach the whole gos- 


THE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 175 

pel to my people I could not stay with 
them three months.” 

Let him ask the Missionary of the A. 
H. M. Society, who, in a late number of 
their organ, speaking of the curse of Sla¬ 
very, says, “ But of this I may not now 
speak, * * to come out openly and avow 
hostility to the * sacred institution’ would 
be to thwart all hopes of doing good and 
insure us a speedy passport from the 
country.” 

Or if he would prefer different testi¬ 
mony, let him ask the New Orleans True 
American, which in speaking of aboli¬ 
tionists, says if they come to Louisiana, 
“ they will never return to tell their suf¬ 
fering, but they shall expiate the crime 
of interfering in our domestic institutions, 
by being burned at the stake,” or of the 
Georgia Chronicle, which said, “ Dresser 
ought to have been hanged as high as 
Haman and left to rot upon the gibbet 
till the wind whistled through his bones. 
The cry of the whole south should be, 


176 THE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 

4 death, instant death to every abolitionist 
wherever he is caught.’ ” The rights of 
conscience are regarded?! 

Let him ask J. T. Hopper. Rev. Wm. 
T. Allan, Jonathan Walker, or Geo. 
Thompson & Co. Let him call from the 
tomb the spirit of the fallen C. T. Torrey, 
and learn how the 44 civil ruler under¬ 
stands his province.” Possibly Senator 
Hale through his friend Senator Foote 
could give him instruction as to proffer¬ 
ed protection. 

But enough of this. It would be easy 
to fill a folio with facts, showing the folly 
of such an interpretation, saving nothing 
of Mr. Barnes’ own contradictions, or of 
the 44 thousand persecutions” he mentions 
as coming from 44 magistrates ,” the ten 
fiery and bloody persecutions of the prim¬ 
itive church, that 44 the blood of the 
early Christians flowed like water, thous¬ 
ands and tens of thousands went to the 
stake,” &c. &c. 


THE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 177 

Oh how long shall the sword devour, 
before we learn where we can lie down 
safely, and be satisfied with the protec¬ 
tion of the good shepherd who has given 
his life for the sheep. 

LITERAL MEANING. 

But again, it is asked, “ what does the 
passage mean ?” Just what it says. Ru¬ 
lers are God’s ministers for good to them 
that do good. They are simply God’s ser - 
rants and can neither bless nor curse 
except as God directs. Their acts are 
so over-ruled of God that whatever may 
be their design, God causes them to work 
for good to those who love Him. In this 
sense the sons of Jacob and Pharaoh were 
God’s ministers for good to Joseph. *• Ye 
meant it for evil,” says Joseph, “ But God 
meant it for good.” Nebuchadnezzar was 
thus a minister of God for good to Dan¬ 
iel to Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. 
Haman to Mordecai. Babylon to the 
Jewish captives , who did good by repent- 


178 THE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 

ing of their sins, exercising faith in God, 
and peaceably submitting to the iron 
yoke ; and were thereby so thoroughly 
humbled that God could make with them 
his “ new covenant,” and be to them a 
Father, and take them for sons and 
daughters. (See Jer. xxxi. and context.) 

In this sense the persecutions at Jeru¬ 
salem were the ministers of God for good 
to the apostles and early Christians who 
were thereby scattered abroad, and “ went 
every where preaching the gospel .” In 
this sense Nero was God’s servant to the 
Christians at Rome, as by his most cruel 
and hellish persecutions he gave them an 
opportunity to show the power of the 
gospel. It “ turned to them for a testi¬ 
mony,” and when they were clad in wax 
garments and burned at the stake to il¬ 
lumine Nero’s gardens, they reflected the 
light of the cross , so that men could read 
upon it “ Behold the wonderful love of 
God” They understood the fullness and 
richness of the passage, “ Unto you is 


THE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 179 

given the 'privilege (for this idea is in¬ 
cluded in the original word,) in the be¬ 
half of Christ, not only to believe on 
Him but also to suffer for his sake /” 
They counted it all joy to be placed in 
these trying circumstances just as Jesus 
Christ for the joy set before Him, endur¬ 
ed the cross,” and in view of his suffer¬ 
ing, says, “ I have a baptism to be bap¬ 
tised with, and how am I straitened until 
it be accomplished !” Oh that there were 
more, who by their experience, could tes¬ 
tify that nothing so ministers to their 
good as to be called to suffer for Jesus. 
Those who have had experience on this 
point understand how wicked men and 
wicked rulers too, are often ministers of 
God for good to them. For further illus¬ 
tration on this point, see Fox’s Book of 
Martyrs. See also Prison Life and Re¬ 
flections of Geo. Thompson & Co., and 
were it not for appearing egotistical, I 
should love to give my Nashville experi¬ 
ence on this point. I may at least say, 


180 THE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 

that the Nashville Committee gave me 
the power of doing a hundred times as 
much for the slave as I otherwise could 
have done. 

We are then to be subject to the pow¬ 
ers that be, remembering that all their 
acts are so controlled of God that he 
uses them as his deacon, (for so the orig¬ 
inal word imports,) in conferring favors 
upon whomsoever He will. 

“ BUT IF THOU DO THAT WHICH IS EVIL, 
BE AFRAID ; FOR IIE BEARETII NOT THE 
SWORD IN VAIN I FOR IIE IS THE MIN¬ 
ISTER OF GOD, A REVENGER TO EXE¬ 
CUTE WRaTH upon him that DOETH 
EVIL.” 

But it is said the remainder of the verse 
teaches that “God hath appointed magis¬ 
trates to punish crime and protect rights: 
that we are not only to expect punish¬ 
ment, from, through and by them, if we 
do evil, but we are to look to them for 
the redress of our grievances, and for the 
defense of our sacred rights: that God 



V 


THE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 181 


lias placed the sword in the ruler’s hand 
for this very purpose, and that the princi¬ 
ple applies equally to nations and to indi¬ 
viduals.” Hence such passages as “ avenge 
not yourselves,” instead of militating 
against the above construction, are ex¬ 
plained as forbidding “ only private re¬ 
dress.” 

Yet when pushed into extreme cases, 
they tell us that in the absence of the 
civil authority we are to take the sword 
into our own hand, and then the passages 
mean that “ we should not exercise re¬ 
venge /” Let us carefully examine each 
of these positions by the “ law and the 
testimony : if they speak not according to 
this word, it is because there is no light 
in them.” In each case the assertion 
hangs on its own merit. No proof is of¬ 
fered. The following are some of the 
passages in question, which we think for¬ 
bid the above construction; coming as 
they do in the immediate context . “ Re¬ 

compense to no man evil for evil,” that is 

H 


1S2 THE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 


(•resist not evil:) “ but whosoever shall 
smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him 
the other also. And if a man will sue 
thee at the law, and take away thy coat, 
let him have thy cloak also. And who¬ 
soever shall compel thee to go a mile, go 
with him twain.” “ Not rendering evil 
for evil, or railing for railing, but the op¬ 
posite, blessing, knowing that unto this 
ye are called, that ye should inherit a 
blessing.” “ See that none render evil 
for evil unto any, but ever follow that 
which is good,both among yourselves and 
towards all.” “ Say not thou I will recom¬ 
pense evil, but wait on the Lord , and He 
shall save thee.” 

“ II it be possible, as much as lietli in 
you, live peaceably with all men.” “ Fol¬ 
low peace with all men, and holiness, with¬ 
out which no one shall see the Lord.” 
“ Depart from evil and do good, seek peace 
and pursue it:” for he that will love life 
and see good days, let him refrain his 
tongue from evil, and his lips that they 



THE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 183 

speak no guile. Let him eschew evil, and 
do good, let him seek peace and ensue it. 
For the eyes of the Lord are upon the 
righteous, and his ears are open unto 
their prayer, but the face of the Lord is 
against them that do evil.’ , 

Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves , 
but give place unto wrath.” (“ This ex¬ 
pression has been interpreted in a great 
variety of ways. Its obvious design is to 
induce us not to attempt to avenge our¬ 
selves, but to leave it with God. To give 
place then, is to leave it for God to come 
in and execute wrath or vengeance on the 
enemy. Do not execute wrath; leave it 
to God. Commit all to Him ; leave your¬ 
self and your enemy in his hands, assured 
that He will vindicate you and punish 
him.”)— Barnes. 

“ For it is written, Avenging is mine, I 
will repay, saith the Lord. Therefore 
if thine enemy hunger, feed him, it he 
thirst, give him drink, for in so doing thou 
shaft heap coals of fire on his head.” “ If 


184 TIIE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 

thine enemy be hungry, give him bread to 
eat, and if he be thirsty, give him water to 
drink, for thou shalt (thus,) heap coals of 
fire on his head, and the Lord shall reward 
thee” “ Love your enemies, bless them 
that curse you, do good to them that hate 
you , and pray for them who despitefully 
use you and persecute you.” “ Be not 
overcome of evil, but overcome evil with 
good.” 

This is the duty Paul is urging when he 
introduces our text. The text must liar - 
monize with the context. 

CHRISTIANS IN NO CASE DIRECTED TO MAGIS¬ 
TRATES FOR REDRESS. 

Avenging ourselves, resisting evil, ren¬ 
dering evil for evil, recompensing evil, 
&c., are here forbidden, and yet in no case 
are we directed to the civil magistrate for 
redress, nor is there the least possible inti¬ 
mation that God designed that we should 
seek redress from that source. 

We find on record no instance where 
any of the apostles applied to the “ powers 


THE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 185 

that be” for redress. “ Paul appealed to 
Cassar.” The only case quoted to the 
contrary is that of Paul, who after having 
been unlawfully bound and scourged, tried 
and examined, once and again, and found 
innocent, was about to be delivered by 
the authorities into the hands of his ene - 
mies. Against this he protested, urging 
that if he had done any thing worthy of 
death, he refused not to die. “ But if not, 
said he,” “ no man may deliver me unto 
them. I appeal to Caesar. And so he 
was taken to Rome as a culprit , not as a 
prosecutor. On his arrival at Rome he 
calls together the Jews , and explains to 
them the reason of his chains. And not¬ 
withstanding he had been egregiously out¬ 
raged by those in power and those not in 
power, he makes no application for re¬ 
dress, nor does he urge that the “ public 
good demands that the offenders be 
brought to justice.” He immediately 
hires him a house, obtains means for a 
livelihood, and begins to preach the gospel 


186 TIIE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 

of peace. I presume no peace man, be 
he ever so radical, would object to such 
redress—such avenging as this. But fur¬ 
ther, the Caesar, or king to whom Paul 
appealed was Nero ! by whom Paul was 
afterwards beheaded. Sad protection ! 

CHRISTIANS AT CORINTH FORBIDDEN TO GO 

TO LAW. 

But not only do we find no instance 
where the apostles applied to the civil 
power for redress, yet we do find the 
Christians at Corinth severely censured for 
even goijig to law one with another. And 
in dissuading them from this course, Paul 
says, “ Now therefore there is utterly a 
fault among you because ye go to law one 
with another. Why do ye not rather 
take wrong? Why do ye not rather suf¬ 
fer yourselves to be defrauded?”—1 Cor. 
vi. 7. I know it is urged that the princi¬ 
ple is restricted to brethren in the church. 
But why should we “ take wrong,” and 
“suffer ourselves to be defrauded” by 


THE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 


187 


church members, and not by others? Fur¬ 
thermore, it is evident that 


THE EARLY CHRISTIANS DID NOT UNDER¬ 
STAND PAUL AS TEACHING THAT THEIR 
PROTECTION WAS TO COME FROM THE 
SWORD, 

as they stood entirely aloof from every 
relation in life which demanded its use. 

Says Gibbon under the head of “ Their 
aversion to the business of war and govern¬ 
ment, 

“ The Christians were not less averse to the 
business than to the pleasures of this world, (that 
is, the business of war and government.) The de¬ 
fense of our persons and property they knew not 
how to reconcile with the patient doctrine which 
enjoined an unlimited forgivenessof past injuries, 
and commanded them to invite the repetition of 
fresh insults. Their simplicity was offended by 
the use of oaths, by the pomp of magistracy, and 
by the active contention of public life. Nor could 
their humane ignorance he convinced that it was 
lawful , on any occasion , to shed the blood of our fel¬ 
low creatures, either by the sword of justice or by 
that of war. * * * While they inculcated the 

maxims of passive obedience, they refused to take 
any active part in the civil administration or the 
military defense of the empire. Some indulgence 



1S8 TIIE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 

might perhaps be allowed to those persons who, 
before their conversion, were already engaged in 
such bloody and sanguinary occupations. Eut it 
was impossible that the Christians, without renounc¬ 
ing a more sacred duty, could assume the characters 

of SOLDIERS, of MAGISTRATES, or of PRINCES.”— 

Gibbon , page 170. 

“The humble Christians were sent into the 
world as sheep among wolves, and since they were 
not permitted to employ force, even in the defense 
of their religion, they should be still more crimi¬ 
nal if they were tempted, to shed the blood of their 
fellow creatures in disputing the vain privileges, 
or the sordid possessions of this transitory life. 
Faithful to the doctrine of the apostle, who in the 
reign of Nero, had enacted the duty of unconditional 
submission, (See Rom. 13.) the Christians of 
the three first centuries preserved their con¬ 
sciences pure and innocent of the guilt of secret 
conspiracy or open rebellion. While they experi¬ 
enced the rigor of persecution , they were never pro¬ 
voked either to meet their tyrants in the field, or 
indignantly to withdraw themselves into some 
remote and sequestered corner of the globe.”— 
lb,, page 253. 

This testimony is doubly valuable, as it 
comes from one who utterly discarded 
their course. 

I know it is affirmed by the advocates 
of the sword, that Christians refused to 
take part in the army or government, be- 


THE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 189 

cause of the idolatrous rites connected 
therewith. This, no doubt, was one good 
reason. But the reason Gibbon assigns, 
is, that they could not reconcile the use of 
the sword with Christianity. True, the 
sword and heathenism have always gone 
hand in hand together, and to the early 
Christian war was as truly an object of 
abhorrence as idolatry. It is as truly 
barbarous and devilish. 

REIGN OF CONSTANTINE. 

Individual cases may be adduced where 
professed Christians were found in the 
army. But it was not tolerated by the 
church in her pristine purity, nor till the 
hypocritical Constantine amalgamated 
church and state. The church then re¬ 
ceived a protection {)) that well nigh worked 
her ruin . It was this protection that ef¬ 
faced every distinctive feature of the gos¬ 
pel, and made it nothing worth, because 
at differed nothing from the world. Un 
<der his reign multitudes flocked to the ar- 


190 THE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 

my, and to the various offices of state; 
and here were sown all the vile features 
of Romanism and Papacy, that have to 
this day cursed the earth with bigotry— 
lust of power, and persecution. 

REIGN OF JULIAN. 

What would have been the result had 
this amalgamation of the church and the 
sword continued, none can tell. But Ju¬ 
lian, Constantine’s successor, had no sym¬ 
pathy with it. Under him, 

“The greater part of the Christian officers 
were gradually removed from their employments 
in the state, the army, and the provinces: and 
the hopes of future candidates were extinguished 
by the declared partiality of a prince who ma¬ 
liciously reminded them that it was ‘ unlawful for 
a Christian to use the sword either of justice or 
of war.”— lb page 307. 

It is good to be taught even by an 
enemy. 

CHRISTIANS NEVER HAVE RECEIVED PRO¬ 
TECTION FROM THE SWORD. 

Hence, I remark again, that if human 
governments were designed to protect 


THE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 191 

• 

Christians by the sword , the plan has 
proved a failure. At least this was true 
of all the governments of Paul’s day. 
The only protection they have received, 
is, (as Gibbon says, page 157,) “ They 
derived new vigor from opposition .” 
The “persecutions only served to revive 
the zeal, and to restore the discipline, 
of the faithful. ”—page 194. In this 
sense Rulers have been the ministers of 
God for good to his faithful ones, and in 
this sense there has been protection 
enough, most certainly. Says Gibbon, 
page 181: 

“ We should naturally suppose * * that the 

magistrates, instead of persecuting, would have 
protected an order of men who yielded the most pas¬ 
sive obedience to the laws , though they declined the 
active cares of war and government.' 1 '’ 

After speaking of the “ universal toler¬ 
ation of polytheism,” he then attempts 
to account for their efforts “ to oppose 
the progress of Christianity,” and admits 
that 


192 


TIIE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 


“ About eighty years after the death of Christ? 
his innocent disciples were punished with death , by 
the sentence of a proconsul of the most amiable 
and philosophical character, and according to 
the laws of an emperor distinguished by the 
wisdom and justice of his general administration. 

* * The Christians who obeyed the dictates 

and solicited the liberty of conscience , were alone, 
among all the subjects of the Roman Empire , ex « 
eluded from the common benefits of their auspicious 
government” 

“By embracing the faith of the gospel, “the 
Christians incurred the supposed guilt of an un¬ 
natural and unpardonable offence. [And even to 
the present day, by many, non-resistance is con¬ 
sidered a much more heinous crime than blood- 
shedding.] It was in vain that the oppressed be¬ 
liever asserted the inalienable rights of con¬ 
science and private judgment. * * * Malice 
and prejudice concurred in representing the 
Christians as a society of atheists [!] who by 
the most daring attack on the religious constitution 
of the empire , had merited the severest animad¬ 
version of the magistrate.”— p. 183. 

“ The Roman princes attempted, by rigorous 
punishments , to subdue the independent spirit, 
which boldly acknowledged an authority superior to 
that of the magistrate .” — p. 184. 

“ They died in torments , and their torments 
were embittered by insults and derision. Some 
were nailed on crosses, others sown up in the 
skins of wild beasts, and exposed to the fury of 
dogs: others again smeared over with combusti¬ 
ble materials were used as torches, in illuminating 
the darkness of the night. The gardens of Nero 


THE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 1G$ 

were destined for the melancholy spectacle? 
which was accompanied with a horse-race, and 
honored with the presence of the emperor, who 
mingled with the populace in the dress and atti¬ 
tude of a charioteer .”—Tacitus Annal. XV. 44, 
quoted by Gibbon , p. 186. 

“ The impatient clamors of the multitude de¬ 
nounced the Christians as the enemies of gods 
and men, doomed them to the severest tortures, 
and venturing to accuse by name some of the 
most distinguished, required with irresistible ve¬ 
hemence that they should be instantly appre¬ 
hended and cast to the lions.”— p. 189. 

Such admissions historians are obliged 
to make notwithstanding their apologies 
lor the persecutors, and their efforts to 
show that the persecutions are only “ in¬ 
considerable !” Strange protection this ! 
Strange defense of our sacred rights! Is 
this the method by which God designs to 
protect those who do good ? Had it not 
been for the “ testimony ” they were called 
to give in behalf of the flesh-subduing, 
soul-elevating principles of the gospel, 
God would doubtless have sent his angel 
and delivered them. But it was necessary 
for them to seal their testimony with their 
blood. And they did it joyfully. 


194 THE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 

But it is said that “ such instances are 
a perversion of the design of human gov* 
eminent.” Amen! So is the use of the 
sword in all cases except where there is a 
direct command from Jehovah for using 
it. Admit if you choose, that evils will 
result without its use. They are as a 
drop to the ocean compared with using it 
at man's discretion. 

Still all this is said to be irrelevant, be¬ 
cause the passages quoted only prove that 
we should not exercise revenge. Says 

PRES. MAHAN, 

“Revenge is evil intentionally inflicted after 
an injury, real or supposed, has been received, or 
inflicted, not at all as a means of self-protection, 
but to gratify feelings and sentiments of hate and 
ill-will which the remembrance of the injury excites. 
Revenge, according to this sense of the term, is, 
in all circumstances, actual or conceivable, 
morally wrong and wholly so. 

“All scripture prohibitions pertaining to re¬ 
venge, such as ‘ avenge not yourselves,’ ‘ resist 
not evil,’ ‘ be not overcome of evil,’ &c., have no 
reference whatever to self-defense. They refer 
to an entirely distinct and opposite thing, and are 
wholly misapplied when adduced against the prin¬ 
ciple of self-defense. It is also very singular 


THE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 195 

that they should ever be so applied, when they 
are presented by Christ and his apostles, in 
almost every instance, as literal quotations from 
the Old Testament, in which the right of self-defense 
is expressly sanctioned.—Moral Philosophy, p. 410. 

Indeed! "When and where in the Old 
Testament is “ the right of self-defense ex¬ 
pressly sanctioned ?” Will Pres. Mahan 
cite one passage which throws the re¬ 
sponsibility of self-defense upon God’s 
people. Self-defense, by violence , is as 
fully forbidden in the Old Testament as in 
the new. In every case where the work 
of destruction was committed to the 
Jews, it was because God’s honor was at 
sta/ce , and hence the wars, if such they 
may be called, were usually aggressive, 
and never in self-defense only, as their 
preservation was connected with God’s 
imputation. And as previously shown, it 
was for the want of faith in God, and 
from their own choice that even this 
bloody work was assigned them. Nay, 
verily, so far from there being any com¬ 
mand or permission simply to defend 


196 THE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 

ourselves, from Genesis to Revelation 
God is every where revealed as our 
Refuge, our Defense, our Salvation, our 
Strong Tower, our Avenger, &c., &c. 

But “ avenge not yourselves,” means 
that we should not “ gratify feelings and 
sentiments of hate and ill-will.” Is that 
their meaning? Dearly beloved, do not 
gratify feelings and sentiments of hate 
and ill will, because God says it belongs 
to Him to exercise such feelings, j Do not 
exercise malice and hate. I will do that! 
—saith the Lord!! Such interpretations 
as this have led individuals to say, “Your 
God is my devil.” 

The term translated avenge, is “ekdi- 
kountes ,” from “ ekdiJceo ,” which accord¬ 
ing to the lexicon means “avenge, vindi¬ 
cate, punish,” &c., from dike , which 
means “justice” The word translated 
vengeance is from the the same root, and 
as the connection would demand, of the 
same import. As if Paul had said, 
Dearly beloved, seek not redress for inju- 


THE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 19? 


ries, for God says I will see that justice 
is clone. I will vindicate your cause. 
Hence says Albert Barnes, in commenting 
on “ Vengeance is mine, I will repay,” 

“ This expression implies that it is improper 
for men to interfere with that which properly 
belongs to God. * * Its design is to assure 

us that those who deserve to be punished shall be 
and that therefore the business of avenging 
may be safely left in the hands of God. Though 
we should not* do it, yet if it ought to be done—it 
will be done. This assurance will sustain us, 
not in the desire that our enemy should be pun¬ 
ished, but in the belief that God will take the mat¬ 
ter into his own hands , that He can administer 

the matter better than we can, and that if our enemy 
ought to be punished he will be. We therefore should 
leave it all with God. That God will vindicate his 
people is clearly and abundantly proved in 2 
Thess. i. 6—10; Rev. 6. 9—11; Dent, xxxii. 
40—43.” 


PASSAGES EXPLAINED BY THE CONTEXT, 

\ 

Now the plain and evident meaning ot 
such passages is, that we should not 
be careful about protecting our “ sacred 
rights,” as God w'ill see to them it we 
seek first the kingdom of God and his 


198 TIIE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 

righteousness. This is evident from the 

<D 

context of each passage. 

“ Dearly beloved, avenge not your¬ 
selves, but rather give place unto wrath, 
for it is written, Avenging is mine, I will 
repay, saith the Lord, therefore , &c.” 
Here the question is not at all whether 
the person deserves punishment, or 
whether the public good demands that he 
should receive it, but we are not permit¬ 
ted to avenge, as that is God’s especial 
business, “ therefore ,” we are to seek the 
good , the well-being, not of ourselves, but 
of our enemy. God has our well-being 
in charge, and so to speak has committed 
our enemy’s well-being to us. Our work 
is to bless wholly and curse not at all. 
O blessed calling ! 

“ Say not thou, I will recompense evil, 
but wait on the Lord , and He shall save 
thee.”— Prov. xx. 22. The meaning of 
“ recompense ” here is determined by the 
antithesis, as the correlative of “save.” 
The Hebrew word means “ to finish” 


THE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 199 

«—hence to stop or prevent. Say not 
thou I will by violence prevent the wrong, 
but wait on the Lord and He shall save 

thee. 

Again those who love life, &c., are di¬ 
rected to seek peace as a means of pre¬ 
serving it, because “ the eyes of the 
Lord are over the righteous, and his ears 
are open to their cry. They are ex¬ 
pected to find salvation from the Lord. 

And “ who is he that will harm vou, 
if,” &c. If there is safety at all, it is in 
acting on the peace principle. “Yielding 
pacifieth great offences.” “A soft answer 
turneth away wrath,” &c. But if we 
suffer this only increases our blessedness. 
We shall be protected and saved if it is 
best. If the greater good demands pa¬ 
tient suffering, the Christian counts it 
all joy to have the privilege of thus 
showing the power of the sustaining 
grace of Christ, and thus recommending 
the gospel as he could in no other way. 


200 THE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 

GOD OUR REFUGE. 

These passages, then, forbid something 
more than the exercise of “feelings and 
sentiments of hate and ill-will.” They 
forbid not what is improper to be done, 
but what it is not our province to do. 
And while they do not refer us to the 
civil ruler for protection, and the vindi¬ 
cation of our “sacred rights,” they do 
refer us to God for redress, and give this 
as the reason why we should not seek it 
ourselves. They refer us to Him who 
“judgeth righteously” “who will avenge 
his own elect speedily.” And shall not 
the judge of all the earth do right? 
And may we not safely and confidently 
leave our cause in his hands? That God 
frequently uses wicked men and wicked 
rulers too, to punish the guilty and pro¬ 
tect the righteous, is evident, as we shall 
soon see. But in no case are we to re¬ 
gard them as his representatives, except 
where they bear a commission direct 
from God. 


THE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 201 


PROMISES TO DELIVER FROM VIOLENCE EX¬ 
PLICIT. 

To me it is strange that persons can 
advocate faith in God “ in every possible 
circumstance of life”—hold up Jesus 
Christ as a perfect Savior , made perfect 
through suffering —advocate the conse¬ 
cration of all our “ sacred rights,” to 
Him, and then be unwilling to leave their 
defense in his hands. His promises to 
“deliver the needy when he crieth; the 
poor also that hath no helper”—to “ re¬ 
deem their soul from deceit and violence” 
—“ that we should be saved from our 
enemies and from the hand of all that hate 
us,” “and be delivered out of the hand of 
our enemies,” &c., are as full and explicit 
as are the promises of salvation from sin 
and hell. 

FAITH THE CONDITION OF THE PROMISES. 

Each is alike conditioned on faith in 
God, and the reasoning that would anni- 


202 THE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 

hilate the one class will annihilate the 
other. Hence the saints of all ages while 
in a state of faith, have taken God as 
their Refuge and their Hiding-place, here 
and hereafter. Their language has been 
“ Show thy marvelous loving-kindness, O 
thou that savest. by thy right hand them 
who put their trust in thee, from those 
that rise up against them. Keep them as 
the apple of thine eye ; hide me under the 
shadow of thy wings, from the wicked 
that oppress me, from my deadly enemies 
who compass me about.”— Ps. xvii. 7—9. 
“ The Lord is my Rock and my Fortress, 
and my Deliverer. The God of my rock, 
in Him will I trust. He is my Shield and 
the Horn of my salvation, my High 
Tower and my Refuge, my Savior. Thou 
savest me from violence .”—2 Sam., xxii. 2, 
3. And this salvation has been indepen¬ 
dent of their agency, when they have had 
faith to be “saved by the Lord their 
God,” as in the case of Jehoshaphat, Hez- 
ekiah, &c. 


THE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 203 


TIIE CASE OF PETER. 

So when Peter was thrust into prison 
by the “civil magistrate,” “ prayer was 
made without ceasing of the church unto 
God for him, and when Herod would have 
brought him forth, the same night Peter 
was sleeping between two soldiers, bound 
with two chains, and the keepers before 
the door kept the prison. And behold 
the angel of the Lord came to him, and a 
light shined in the prison, and he smote 
Peter on the side, and raised him up, say¬ 
ing, Arise up quickly. And his chains fell 
from his hands .—Acts xii. 5—7. So 

“ Paul and Silas in their prison, 

Sang of Christ the Lord arisen ; 

And an earthquake’s arm of might, 

Broke their dungeon-gates at night.” 

So also Moses in his straits cried unto 
the Lord, and Israel was delivered. And 

“In that hour when night is calmest, 

Sang he from the Hebrew Psalmist, 

In a voice so sweet and clear 
That one could but choose to hear, 




204 THE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 




Songs of triumph and ascriptions, 
Such as reached the swart Egyptians, 
When upon the Red Sea coast, 
Perished Pharaoh and his host. 

And the voice of his devotion 
Fills one’s soul with strange emotion, 
For its tones by turns were glad, 
Sweetly solemn, wildly sad.” 


Christ’s instruction as to the defense 

OF “ SACRED RIGHTS.” 

The Savior often reminds his disciples 
that their “ sacred rights” will be invaded; 
but instead of directing them, in these 
circumstances, to apply to the military 
, power for protection, He tells them that 
it is by “patiently enduring ” that they 
shall save their souls, and when He an¬ 
nounced the voluntary sacrifice of his 
life which he was about to make at Jeru¬ 
salem, Peter did not believe in the doc¬ 
trine at all; but “ took Him and began 
to rebuke him, saying, Be it far from thee 

Lord. This shall not be unto thee. But 
£ 

He turned and said unto Peter. Get 









THE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 205 

thee behind me Satan. Thou art a scan¬ 
dal to me; for thou savourest not the 
things that be of God, but those that be 
of men. And when he had called the 
people with his disciples also, he said un¬ 
to them all, Whosoever will come after 
me let him deny himself and take up his 
cross and follow me, for he who desires 
to save his life shall lose it, but whosoever 
shall lose his life for my sake and the 
gospel, the same shall save it. For what 
is a man profited if he gain the whole 
world and lose his own soul, or what 
shall a man give in exchange for his soul.” 
(See Matt. xvi. 21-26. Mark viii. 31-38. 
Luke ix. 22-35.) 

i 

Does this look like teaching self-de¬ 
fense? What is the import of this 
quotation, taken with the context, un¬ 
less it be that a man endangers his 
soul by violent self-defense. And what 
could justify the Savior in calling Pe¬ 
ter 44 Satan” unless it be that in his 
love for self-defense he had shown him- 

i 


206 THE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 

self a stranger to the heaven-given doc¬ 
trine of self-sacrifice. 

peter’s rebuke for using the sword. 

So when Peter was rebuked for using 
the sword in defense of his master, he 
was not told that that case was an ex¬ 
ception to the general rule, that he could 
under ordinary circumstances use the 
sword, nor that he should in such cases 
seek help from the magistrate. No. 
But “ Put up thy sword into its place, 
for all who take the sword, by the sword 
shall perish. Thinkest thou that I can 
not immediately pray to my Father and 
lie will instantly give me more than 
twelve legions of angels?” (See 2 Kings 
vi. 17. Daniel vii. 10.) As if He had 
said, If it were best I should be defended, 
God is not wanting in means. But how 
then shall the scripture be fulfilled, that 
thus it must be ?”— Matt. xxvi. 51-54. 

It was hard for Peter to give up the 
idea of self-defense. But such were the 


THE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 207 

lessons he received from his Savior, that 
when he was “ converted ,” he “ strength¬ 
ened his brethren” on this point. See 
1 Pet. ii. 19-25; iii. 8-18; iv. 12-19; v. 
10, &c. 

GOD OUR AVENGER, &C. A PROMINENT DOC*- 

TRINE OF THE BIBLE. 

But God’s protection is not brought 
forward incidentally in the Bible. Nay, 
it holds a prominent place on almost ev- 
ery page in the Old Testament and in the 
New. “ Shall not God avenge his own 
elect?” (who cry to Him by day and 
night,) and be very indulgent to them ? 
(that is, will He not bear long with their 
want of faith—their many provocations, 
&c.) I tell you He will avenge them 
quickly. But when the Son of man 
comes, shall he find faith upon the earth?” 
Shall he find those who look to Him as 
an Avenger 1 Shall He find his elect 
crying day and night unto Him as though 
help could come from no other ? Says 


208 THE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 

t 

Barnes, “ This passage supposes that 
when the elect of God are in trouble and 
pressed down with calamities, and perse¬ 
cuted , they will cry unto Him; and it 
affirms that if they do, He will hear their 
cries and will answer their requests,” and 
this accords with Ps, cxlv. 18-20. <‘The 
Lord is nigh unto all that call upon Him 
in truth, He will fulfill the desire of them 
that fear Him: He also will hear their 
cry and will save them. The Lord pre- 
serveth all that love Him; but the wick¬ 
ed will He destroy.” 

In the 32d Chapter of Deut., God com¬ 
plains of the frowardness and backsliding 
of his people and because they would 
not trust in Him he says, “ I will hide my 
face from them. I will see what their 
end shall be, for they are a very froward 
generation, children in whom is no faith* 
* * l said I would scatter them into cor¬ 
ners, I would make the remembrance of 
them to cease from among men, were it 
not that I feared the wrath of the enemy* 


TliE BIBLE AGAlftST WAlt. 209 

lest their adversaries should behave 
themselves strangely, lest they should say* 
* Our high hand and not the Lord hath 
done all this.’ For they are a nation void 
of counsel* neither is there anv under-* 
standing in them. If they were wise 
they would look at this and consider the 
consequences of their course. How 
should one chase a thousand and two put 
ten thousand to flight* except their Rock 
had sold them, and the Lord had shut 
them up**’ &c. Right in this connection*- 
while speaking of Himself as their pro¬ 
tector and defense* he says, “To me be- 
longeth vengeance and recompense. 

Their feet shall slide in due time, for the 
day of their calamity is at hand and the 
things that shall come upon them make 
haste. For the Lord shall Judge his peo¬ 
ple, and repent Himself for his servants * 
(bear long with them,) when He seeth 
that their power is gone, and there is 
none shut up or left. And He shall say, 
where are their gods ? their rock in whom 


210 THE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 

they trusted ? which did eat the fat of 
their sacrifices and drank the wine of their 
drink offerings. Let them rise up and 
help you and be your’ protection ! [They 
had trusted in other sources for help and 
protection until they saw their folly 
and in their extremity they cry unto 
God, who, in his long suffering, bears 
with their wicked departures-for¬ 

gives their sin and comes to avenge 
them.] See now that I, I am thy De¬ 
liverer, and there is no god with me ; I 
kill and I make alive. I wound and I 
heal; neither is there any that can deliver 
out of my hand , For I lift my hand to 
heaven and say 1 live forever. If I whet 
my glittering sword and my hand take 
hold on judgment, I will render vengeance 
to mine enemies and will reward them 
that hate me. * * Rejoice O ye na¬ 

tions, his people: for he will avenge the 
blood of his servants, and will render 
vengeance to his adversaries, and will be 
merciful unto his land, and to his people.” 



THE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 211 

In Isa. xxiv. the prophet speaks of the 
judgments with which God threatens the 
nations of the earth who have oppressed 
his people, (though he has permitted them 
to be oppressed because of their sins,) 
and after recounting his wonderful acts, 
exclaims : 

“ O Lord, thou art my God , I will ex¬ 
alt thee. I will praise thy name , for thou 
has done wonderful things : Thy councils 
of old are faithfulness and truth # * 
For thou hast been a strength to the 
poor, a strength to the needy in his dis¬ 
tress. A refuge from the storm, a shadow 
from the heat, when the blast of the ter¬ 
rible ones is as a storm against the wall.” 
Arguing from what he has done,He shows 
what He will do in redeeming his people: 
and in pointing forward to the time when 
by faith they will return fully to him he 
says, “And it shall be said in that day, 
Lo ! this is our God. We have waited for 
Him, and He will save us: this is the 
Lord : we have waited for Him, we will 


I 



212 THE BIBLE AGAINST WAR* 

be glad and rejoice in his salvation* * * 
In that day shall this song be sung in the 
land of Judah: We have a strong city; 
salvation will God appoint jor walls and 
bulwarks. Open ye the gates that the 
righteous nation which keepeth the truth 
may enter in; (such a nation,) with a 
heart stayed on God, Thou wilt keep in 
perfect peace, because there is trust in 
Thee. Trust ye in the Lord forever: 
for in the Lord Jeiiovaii is everlasting 
strength. 

After again speaking of the judgments 

_ _ * ... Jv 

He inflicts on the oppressors, and again 
acknowledging the justness of the punish¬ 
ment they themselves have received at 
his hands for their sin, he says, “ Lord, 
Thou wilt ordain peace for us : for Thou 
also hast wrought all our works for us. 
0 Lord our God, lords besides Thee have 
had dominion over us, (but in future) by 
Thee only will we make mention of Thy 
name. # # In trouble have they visited 
Thee, they poured out a prayer when 


the BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 213 

Thy chastening >vas upon them.” * * 

* “ Come, my people, enter thou into thy 
chambers, and shut thy doors about thee : 

hide thvself as it were for a little moment 

•/ 

until the indignation be overpast. For 
behold the Lord cometh out of his place 
to punish the inhabitants of the earth for 
their iniquity: the earth also shall dis¬ 
cover her blood and shall no more cover 
her slain. In that day the Lord with 
his sore and great and strong sword, 
shall punish leviathan the piercing ser¬ 
pent, even leviathan that crooked ser¬ 
pent.”—(See Ps, lxxiv. 14; and Ezek. 
xxix. 3.) And He shall slay the dragon 
that is in the sea. In that day sing ye 
unto her, A vineyard of red wine. I the 
Lord do keep it: I will water it every mo~ 
ment: lest any hurt it I will keep it night 
and day.” See chap. xxv.; xxvi; and 
xxvii.) See also Isa. lxiii. 1—3; Jer . 
xlvi. 10 ; &c. In view of such promises 
and such revelations of the character ol 
God, well may the Psalmist exclaim, 


214 THE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 

“ Shall I lift up mine eyes to the hills ? 
whence shall my help come ? My help 
comes from the Lord, who made heaven 
and earth. He will not suffer thy foot to 
be moved: He that keepeth thee will 
not slumber. Behold, He that keepeth 
Israel will neither slumber nor sleep* 
The Lord is thy keeper: the Lord is 
thy shade upon thy right hand. The sun 
shall not smite thee by day, nor the moon 
by night. The Lord shall preserve- thee 
from all evil. He shall guard thy life* 
The Lord shall guard thy going out and 
thy coming in, from this time forth and 
forevermore.”— Ps. cxxi. 

“ He that is our God is the God of sali¬ 
vation, and unto God the Lord belong the 
issues from death.”— Ps. lxviii. 20. For 
“ The Lord will judge his people, and He 
will repent Himself concerning his serv¬ 
ants.”— Ps. cxxxv. 14. 

Vengeance then, belongs to God ex¬ 
clusively ; for He alone is fully capable of 
determining guilt and its desert. Hence 


THE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 215 

the wofully blundering work generally 
made in attempts to administer retributive 
justice. Our government is supposed to 
come the nearest to perfection of any in 
existence : but what do we find here. 

Go to our great cities, and see how 
woman in her wretchedness and poverty, 
is protected! Go to our prisons in Wash¬ 
ington, and mark how the righteous suf¬ 
fer, with the poor, for acts of kindness to 
the poor, while the man-stealer and his 
coadjutors are “ seen in great power, and 
spreading themselves as a green bay tree.” 
The oppressor and the adulterer hold 
their heads high.—“ Their horn is ex¬ 
alted ” by the operation of our laws ; while 
the strong arm of ^wcivil power grinds the 
poor in the earth, and affords little or no 
protection to the weak and defenseless. 
Perhaps a more perfect description of our 
General Government could not be given 
than is found in the twenty-second chap¬ 
ter of Ezekiel, and in reading it one 
would think the prophet was addressing 


216 THE BlfcLE AGAINST WAK. 


our Congress, instead of Jerusalem, when 
he says, “ Thou art become guilty in thy 
blood that thou hast shed, and hast de¬ 
filed thyself in thine idols, which thou hast 
made, and thou hast caused thy days to 
draw near, and art come even unto thy 
years.- * Therefore have I made thee a 
reproach unto the heathen, and a mock¬ 
ing to all countries. Those near and 
those far from thee, shall mock thee, who 
art infamous, and much vexed. 

In thee have they set light by father and 
mother, (many a slave knows not his father 
or mother.) In the midst of thee have 
they dealt by oppression with the stranger 
—in Thee have they vexed the fatherless 
•and the widow. Thou hast despised my 
holy things, and hast profaned my Sab¬ 
baths. * * * in the midst of thee 

they commit lewdness. In thee have they 
discovered their father’s nakedness; in 
Thee have they humbled her that was set 
apart for pollution. And one hath com¬ 
mitted abomination with his neighbor’s 


THE BIBLE AGAINST WAR* 217 

wife: # and another hath lewdly de-> 
filed his daughter-in-law : and another in 
thee hath humbled his sister, his father's 
daughter; In Thee have they taken gifts 
to shed blood, (by blood hounds) thou 
hast taken usury and increase, and thou 
hast greedily gained of thy neighbors by 
extortion , and hast forgotten Me, saith 
the Lord God. * * There is a conspira¬ 
cy of her prophets in the midst thereof 
like a roaring lion ravening the prey. 
They have devoured souls; they have 
taken the treasure and precious things; 
they have made her many widows in the 
midst thereof. Her priests have violated 
my law, and have profaned my holy 
things: they have put no difference be¬ 
tween the holy and profane, neither have 
they showed difference between the tin- 

V 

clean and the clean, and have hid their 
eyes from my Sabbaths, and I am profaned 
among them. Her princes in the midst 
thereof are like wolves ravening the prey* 
to shed blood, to destroy souls, to get dis- 


218 TIIE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 

honest gain. And her prophets have 
daubed them with untempered mortar* 
preaching vanity, and divining lies unto 
them, saying, thus saith the Lord God, 
when the Lord hath not spoken. The 
people of the land have used oppression 
and exercised robberv, and have vexed 
the poor and needy: yea, they have 
oppressed the sti anger wrongfully*” 

If any say this deception is not true to 
the life, it is because they have not seen 
the true portrait. Should we bring to the 
test any other government that has relied 
on the sword for defense, no doubt we 
should join with Solomon in saying, “So 
I returned and considered all the oppres* 
sions that are done under the sun : and 
behold the tears of the oppressed, [O^and 
they had no comforter. And in the 

hand of their oppressors was power ,* and 
they had no avenger.” — Eccl. iv. L 

And perhaps some could adopt the lan* 
guage of Duganne, and say, 


THE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 

l looked from out the grating 
Of my spirit’s dungeon cell— 

And I saw the life-tide rolling, 

With a sullen, angry swell; 

And the battle-ships were riding, 

Like leviathans in pride, 

While the cannon shot was raining 
On the stormy human tide. 

Then my soul in anguish wept, 
Sending forth a wailing cry; 

Said the world, “ This comes from heaven £ 
Said my soul, “ It is a lie. !” 

I looked from out the grating 
Of my spirit’s dungeon cell— 

And a sound of mortal mourning 
On my reeling senses fell. 

And I heard the fall of lashes, 

And the clank of iron chains, 

And I saw where men were driven, 

Like dumb, cattle, o’er the plains. 

Then my soul looked up to God, 
With a woe-beclouded eye: 

Said the world, “This comes from heaven £ • 
Said my soul, “ It is a lie !” 

I looked from out the grating 
Of my spirit’s dungeon cell— 


220 THE BIBLE AGAINST WAR, 

• 

And I heard the solemn tolling 
Of a malefactor’s knell. 

And I saw a frowning gallows 
Reared aloft in awful gloom ; 

While a thousand eyes were glaring 
On a felon’s horrid doom. 

And a shout of cruel mirth 
On the wind was rushing by ; 

Said the world, “ This comes from Heaven !” 

Said my soul, “ It is a lie !” 

I looked from out the grating 
Of my spirit’s dungeon cell— 

Where the harvest wealth was blooming 
Over smiling plain and dell; 

And I saw a million paupers, 

With their foreheads in the dust; 

And I saw a million workers 
Slay each other for a crust ! 

And I cried, “0 God above, 

Shall Thy people always die 1” 

Said the world, “ It comes from Heaven !” 

Said my soul, “ It is a lie !” 

God gave to man u dominion over the 
fish of the sea and over the fowls of the 
air and over the cattle and over all the 
earth and over every creeping thing that 
creepeth upon the earth,” But never 


THE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 221 

has lie given to man, in this sense, domin¬ 
ion over his fellow man, This preroga¬ 
tive He has reserved to Himself and de¬ 
manded that we should regard Him as 
the Lord and Father of all, and one an¬ 
other as brethren. We have not the 
right to take our own lives, and surely 
we can not commission another to do 
what is unlawful for us to do in person< 
True, Jehovah did make man — under 
the Jewish theocracy—the executor of his 
law, and required him, at God's direction , 
to put his fellow man to death for about 
twenty crimes. But this was to bedone not 
only subject to God’s direction, but wher¬ 
ever there was the least doubt, the guilt 
was determined by the Urim and the 
Thummim. And admitting that it was 
not on account of the hardness of their 
heart that this was required at their 
hand, the most it proves, is, that the 
life of man is to be taken only by the 
express command of God. 

Says Professor Finney : 


222 


THE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 


“ The time shall come when God shall be re¬ 
garded as the supreme and universal sovereign of 
the universe : when his law shall be regarded as 
universally obligatory: when all kings, legisla¬ 
tors and judges shall act as his servants, declaring, 
applying and administering the great principle of 
his law to all tiie affairs of human beings. Thus 
God will be the supreme Sovereign, and earthly 
rulers will be governors, kings and judges under 
Him, as acting by his authority, as revealed in the 
Bible.” Amen, and Amen. 

And when the kingdoms of this world 
are thus given to Christ, then, and not till * 
then can Christians look to them for protec¬ 
tion. But it is revealed in the Bible that the 
subjects of this kingdom shall be saved by 
the Lord their God, and not by the sword 
—that under Christ’s “authority” and at his 
“ rebuke ,” the old kings, &c., having no 
use for their “ swords” in this new king¬ 
dom, shall “ beat them into ploughshares.” 
The instruments of bloodshed and war 
shall be 11 cut off.” The “ officers” of this 
government shall be “ Peace,” and the 
“ exactors Righteousness.” Lord Jesus, 
whose right it is to reign,” come quickly. 
“Tiiy kingdom come.” 






THE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 223 


THE TRUE MEANING. 

It is evident then that God designs man 
to be protected in doing good, and pun¬ 
ished for doing evil. But there was no 
human government in Paul’s day, which 
God had approvingly appointed for this 
w r ork. Nor have wicked rulers, directly 
as God’s agents ever done this. Nolens, 
volens, as instruments in his hands they 
have done it indirectly : and in this sense 
only are they his ministers. In this sense 
the Chaldean power was “ ordained of 
God and it became the Jews to be sub¬ 
ject to them on this account, and regard 
them as God’s “ avenger” in punishing 
them for their sins. In the first chapter 
of Habakkuk the prophet complains bit¬ 
terly of the wickedness of the Jews : and 
God in answer to his complaints, says, 
“ Behold ye among the heathen , and regard 
and wonder marvelously, for I will work 
a work in your days which ye will not 
believe though it be told you. For, lo, I 


224 


THE BIBLE AGAINST WAlt* 


raise up the Chaldeans, a bitter and hasty 
nation, which shall march through the 
breadth of the land, to possess dwelling 
places not theirs* They are terrible and 
dreadful: from them shall proceed their 
judgment and their judicial sentence.’* 
&c.— Hab. i. 5—7.—Hebrew. 

The prophet then humbly expostulates 
with God, for using such instrumentality 
as an “ avenger to execute wrath upon 
him that doeth evil urging that the 
Chaldeans were even more wicked than 
the Jews, and moreover would impute 
their success to their gods, &c» The 
course that God took seemed so *.* mar¬ 
velous,” that he did not believe when told 
what God was about to do, till he is made 
to see the light in which God uses them* 
He has then no “fear” of them, but ex¬ 
claims, “Art thou not from everlasting, O 
Lord, my God, my Holy One ? We shall 
not die. O Lord, thou hast ordained 
them for judgment, and O mighty God, 
thou hast established them for correction* 


THE BIBEE AGAINST WAR. 225 

Thou art of purer eyes than to behold 
evil, and canst not look on iniquity. 
Wherefore lookest thou upon them that 
deal treacherously, and holdest thy 
tongue when the wicked devoureth those 
more righteous than he?” &c. 

To the latter question he “ waits for an 
answer,” Chap. 2 : 1. and is told that, 
in his turn, the persecutor shall have 
this “ taunting proverb taken up against 
him,” namely,“ Because thou hast spoiled 
many nations, all the remnant of the peo¬ 
ple shall spoil thee; because of men’s 
blood and for the violence of the land of 
the city, and all that dwell therein” &c„ 
See the whole book of Habakkuk, 

Another illustration in point is found 
in the case of Cyrus of whom God says 
“Thou art my battle axe and weapons 
of war; for with thee will I break in 
pieces the nations: and with thee will I 
destroy kingdoms” &c. See Jer. 51. 


226 THE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 

SENACIIERIB. 

In the same sense God made Senache- 
rib his minister—“an avenger of wrath” 
upon the hypocritical Jews—He calls him 
the “rod of his anger ” and says I will 
send him against an hypocritical nation, 
and against the people of my wrath will 
I give him a charge to take the spoil and 
to take the prey, and to tread them down 
like the mire of the streets. 

Howbeit he meaneth not so, neither 
doth his heart think so ; but it is in his 
heart to destroy and cut off nations not 
a few. ” &c. Isa, 10: 6, 7. See the 
whole chapter. 

NEBUCHADNEZZAR. 

In this sense God calls “ Nebuchadnez¬ 
zar, king of Babylon,” his “servant .”— 
Jer. xxv. 9: xxvii. 6 : xliii. 10, and requir¬ 
ed his people, “ every soul to be subject” 
unto him, and says, “ The nation and 
kingdom which will not serve this same 
Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, 


THE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 227 

and that will not put their neck under 
the yoke of the king of Babylon, that 
nation will I punish, saith the Lord, with 
the sword and with the famine and with 
the pestilence, till I have consumed them 
by his hand,” &c.— Jer. xxvii. 8, 9. See 
the whole history of their being sent into 
captivity, contained in chapters xxiv.— 
xxxii. 

The text before us is in harmony with 
these passages, “If thou do that which is 
evil , be afraid, for he beareth not the 
sword without cause; for in such a case, 
he is, though unwittingly, an avenger in 
wrath to him that doeth evil. Wherefore 
it is necessary to be subject, not only be¬ 
cause resistance adds fuel to the flame by 
provoking wrath, but from the conscious¬ 
ness that you deserve the punishment, and 
are receiving it from God, who designs 
thereby to bring thee to repentance, inas¬ 
much as He has the control of all events, 
and is in everything working thy good. 
This was the view which sustained Joseph, 


228 THE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 

and by which he endeavored to console 
his fearful desponding brethren. “ Ye 
meant it for evil, but God meant it for 
good.” 

DAVID. 

David viewed things in the same light, 
when he said of Shimei, “ Let him curse, 
because the .Lord hath said unto him, 
curse David. Who shall then say. 
Wherefore hast thou done so ? * * Be¬ 

hold my son which came out of my bow¬ 
els seeketh my life, how much more this 
Benjamite. Let him alone, and let him 
curse, for the Lord hath hidden him .”— 
2 Sam. xvi. 10-12. 

“ FOR THIS CAUSE PAY YE TRIBUTE ALSO, 
FOR THEY ARE GOD’S MINISTERS ATTEND¬ 
ING CONTINUALLY UPON THIS VERY 
THING.” 

For the same reason also Paul insists 
upon paying tribute, that is, because of 
the evil of resistence, and from the con¬ 
sciousness that God will overrule all to 


THE BIBLE AGAINST WAR- 


229 


his glory; as rulers are merely his minis¬ 
ters, constantly accomplishing his pur¬ 
poses. This was vf- trying and grinding 
point especially with the converted Jews, 
many of whom were at Rome at this 
time. Says Barnes, 

“ The Romans made all conquered provinces 
pay this tribute, as an acknowledgment of sub¬ 
jection, and it had become a question whether it 
was right to acknowledge this claim and submit 
to it. Especially would this question be agitated 
by the Jews and Christians.” 

ciirist’s example. 

It was on this point that the crafty Jews 
intended to entrap the Savior, when they 
sent spies to Him, who feigned them¬ 
selves just men, “ that they might take 
hold of his words, that so they might de¬ 
liver him unto the authority and power of 
the governor. And when they w*ere 
come they asked him, saying, Master, we 
know that thou art true, that thou sayest 
and teachest rightly, neither acceptest 
thou the person of any, and carest for no 

j 


230 


TIIE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 


man, for thou regardest not the person of 
men, but teackest the way of God in truth. 
Tell us therefore, what thinkest thou? 
Is it lawful to give tribute to Cesar or not? 
Shall we give or shall we not give ? But 
Jesus perceived their wickedness and said, 
knowing their hypocrisy, Why tempt ye 
me, ye hypocrites ? Show me the tribute 
money; bring me a penny that I may 
see it. And they brought unto him a 
penny. And he saith unto them, Whose 
is this image and superscription ? They 
say unto him, Cesar’s. Then said he unto 
them, Render therefore unto Cesar the 
things that are Cesar’s, and to God the 
things that are God’s. And they could 
not take hold of his words before the 
people. They marveled at his answer, 
and held their peace, and left him and 
went away.” (See Harmony of Matt. xxii. 
12-22; Mar/cx ii. 13-17; Luke xx. 20-26.) 

Had the Savior answered yes, they 
would have accused Him of not being: a 
consistent Jew, and with teaching things 


TIIE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 231 

contrary to Moses. Had He said no, 
they would have arraigned Him as teach¬ 
ing rebellion against Cesar. They tried 
to charge upon Christ the things’of which 
they themselves in heart were guilty, and 
the Savior answered them as He usually 
answered cavillers, in a way designed to 
expose their hypocrisy and condemn 
themselves. He answered the fools ac¬ 
cording to their folly. Yet when the col¬ 
lectors came for the Jewish tax, he gives 
Peter to understand that it ought not to 
be demanded, yet “ lest we should offend ” 
said he, “ give unto them for me and 
thee.” 

So Paul urges the paying of tribute, as 
an act of submission, carrying out the 
principle laid down by our Savior, in 
Matthew v. 40-42, if they take the coat, 
give the cloak, &c., and surely their 

property would not be more sacred than 
their persons. He offered for their con¬ 
solation the fact that 


232 THE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 


god’s HAND WAS TO BE RECOGNIZED IN 
EVERYTHING- 

This is,the marrow of the whole chap- 
ter. This comports with the teachings of 
the whole Bible. It was this that moved 
Job to say, “ Shall we receive good at the 
hand of the Lord, and shall we not re¬ 
ceive evil.” Every experienced Christian 
finds this a rich source of blessedness. 
Hence says Prof. Upharn in speaking of 


Catharine adorna, 

“ She saw and recognized God, in the instru¬ 
ments which He employs or permits to be em¬ 
ployed, in distinction from and above the instru¬ 
ments themselves. * * She saw God and loved 
Him in those painful instrumentalities, which 
have their origin in a source the most remote 
from that which is divine. * * She never suf¬ 
fered an injury, * * without distinguishing be¬ 

tween the agent who inflicted the blow, and the 
God who permitted the infliction. And knowing 
that in every permission of this kind, her heavenly 
Father contemplates, in connection with the 
manifestation of the character of the agent, the 
good of the sufferer, she felt that such occasions 
as well as the opposite occasions, demanded the 
prompt and full returns of gratitude and love.” 


■The eible against war, 233 

In view of this my dear friend, J. W, 
Hail , wrote me soon after my return from 
Nashville, as follows : 

“ I feel exceedingly thankful that God has 
preserved your life, and it has been my prayer 
that your afflictions may be sanctified to you. 
Depend upon it they are intended for your good. 
God never would have permitted you to have suf¬ 
fered as you did, without some wise and gracious 
purpose; and It will be your aim doubtless, to de : 
cipher the handwriting of his providence, and 
improve by it.” 

ORIGINAL TEXT. 

This view of the subject is confirmed 
by the original. The term translated 
ministers, is “ liturgoi ,” which according 
to Bloomfield, “ is applied in the Scriptures* 
tb the public offices of religion, 1st. That 
Of the priests and Levites under the Mo¬ 
saic law ; and 2d. That of Christian min¬ 
isters of everv soft under the Christian 
dispensation.” In every instance in the 
Bible, it is used religiously, not politically. 
(See Heb. i. 14; and x. 11.) The reason 
then, why the Christians at Rome were 


234 THE BIBLE AGAINST WAR* 

to pay tribute, was because it was de¬ 
manded. The reason why they were to 
do it cheerfully w r as because the rulers 
whom they thus supported, were, though 
unwittingly, accomplishing God’s pur¬ 
poses. 

“ Render therefore to all their dues, 
tribute to whom tribute is due, custom to 
whom custom, fear to whom fear, and 
honor to w r hom honor.” “ Render there¬ 
fore unto Cesar the things w r hich are 
Cesar’s, and unto God the things which 
are God's” 

These seven verses are all that are 
usually urged as authority for the use of 
.the sword. I must say I need a commis¬ 
sion rnnch more definite and explicit be¬ 
fore I can—directly in the face of many 
other plain injunctions —imbrue my hand 

in my brother’s blood. 

/ z i' *, fir Ip 

The usual construction teaches obe¬ 
dience to and support of all human gov¬ 
ernments, under which the Christian may 
be placed, as creatures of God’s appoint- 


THE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 235 

ment and approval. This necessitates so 
many exceptions as to make the directions 
of no effect. Especially when applied to 
the Christians at Rome, if not nugatory, 
they were worse than nugatory. 

2. That God has appointed magistrates 
to act as avengers in his stead, and Chris¬ 
tians are to look to them for vengeance 
and protection. This is in face of all 
God’s word, and of historical facts. Here 
as in other places in Scripture, rulers are 
spoken of as instruments, and not as 
agents. Precisely the same expressions 
are used in speaking of Babylon, and 
other heathen hations, as are used in this 
chapter. They are to be understood as 
teaching the same in each case, unless the 
context forbid. The context not only 
does not forbid the same construction, 
but it requires the same. And yet God 
punished Babylon, Egypt, &c., his aven¬ 
gers upon Israel, for the very acts of vio¬ 
lence by which Israel was chastised. Can 
this be reconciled with his justice, if they 


236 THE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 

were acting as his regularly appointed 
agents ? 

3. It assumes that the sword is neces¬ 
sary for the protection of Christians. 
God says, “I will have mercy upon the 
house of Judah, and will save them by the 
Lord their God , and I will not save them 
by bow , nor by sword , nor by battle, by 
horses nor by horsemen .” It thus overlooks 
the glorious truth that “ God is our Refuge 
and Strength, a very present Help in 
trouble,” and that we are to be saved 
from “ violence” and “ the hand of all 
that hate us,” by faith in Jesus Christ, 
We have seen what kind of protection 
the sword has given. If the Christian 
has no other, his case is indeed hopeless. 
The representation of the Bible is, that 
“ by patient enduring, ye shall save your 
souls,” while “ they who take the sword 
shall perish by the sword;” and it speaks 
of the “ mighty which are gone down to 
hell with their weapons of war.”— Ezek, 
xxxii. 27. See the whole chapter. 




THE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 237 

It is not by using the sword, but from 
suffering by the sword, that the Christian 
enters the portals of heaven with his 
“ white robes, to rest from his labors,” 
“ where the wicked cease from troubling 
and the weary are at rest.”— Rev. vi. 
9-11. 

4. This construction is opposed to the 
precepts and practice of Christ, of his 
apostles, of the early Christians and all 
true reformers. They have uniformly 
been subject , though they have refused 
to obey and support wicked rulers. It 
makes Paul guilty of preaching one thing 
and practicing another. 

5. It does not meet the exigency of the 
Roman Christians to whom Paul was 
writing, whereas the literal construction 
does exactly meet their case and com¬ 
ports with other teachings of the Bible 
on the same subject. 

6. This construction does violence to 
the plain and literal meaning of the text, 
and could never have been resorted to 


238 THE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 

but for the support of a pre-established 
theory. 

7. But lastly, this construction is at 
variance with the gist and rnarrow of the 
whole gospel. 

“ God commendeth his love to us in 
that while we were yet sinners , Christ 
died for us.” — Rom. v. 8. He died for 
all, that they who live should not hence¬ 
forth live unto themselves , but unto Him 
who died for them and rose again.”— 
2 Cor. v. 15'. “ For it becometh Him for 
whom are all things and by whom are 
all things, in bringing many sons unto 
glory, to make the Captain of their 
salvation, perfect through suffering, * * 
and having been made perfect, He became 
author (of the plan) of eternal salvation 
unto all them that obey Him.”— Heb. ii. 
10, and v. 9. “ He was oppressed and 

He was afflicted , yeF he opened not his 
mouth: He is brought as a lamb to the 
slaughter , and as a sheep before her 
shearers is dumb, so he opened not his 


THE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 239 


frnouth. * * And He made his grave 
with the wicked, and was with the rich 
in his death, because He had done no vi¬ 
olence, neither was there deceit in his 
mouth.”— Isa . liii. 7, 9. And beloved, 
u even hereunnto are ye called, [j CTBe- 
eause Christ also suffered for you leaving 
you an example that ye should follow his 
steps! ! ” “ Hereby have we a true man¬ 

ifestation of love. Because He hath laid 
down his life for us, and we ought to lay 
down our lives for the brethren.”—1 Jno. 
iii. 16. The sun by which this dark world is 
to be enlightened, arose from behind the 
cross. The Christian as crucified with Christ 
is called to reflect the same glorious light. 
Self-sacrifice for another’s good, and the 
voluntary surrender of personal rights, in 
connection with faith in Jesus Christ as 
our refuge, is the life giving principle of 
the gospel. It is this that distinguishes 
it from all other systems of religion. This 
was the doctrine in which Paul gloried. 
(2 Cor. xii. 9, 10.) This is the duty he 


240 THE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 

is urging upon the church at Rome, 
How tender and soul humbling his in¬ 
structions : 

Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, 
but rather give place unto wrath: for it 
is written, Avenging is mine, I will re¬ 
pay, saith the Lord. Therefore , if thine 
enemy hunger, feed him, if he thirst, give 
him drink ; for in so doing thou shalt heap 
coals of fire on his head. Be not over¬ 
come of evil, but overcome evil with good. 
Let every soul be subject to superior 
powers ; for their is no power but of God. 
Even the existing authorities are ordered 
[or controlled] of God ; so that he who 
arrays himself against the power, opposes 
the arrangement of God. (And those 
who oppose shall receive to themselves 
[or by themselves,] the punishment.) Dor 
rulers are by no means the fear of good 
works, but of evil. Desirest thou not to 
fear the power ? Do good, and thou 
shalt have praise of the same. For he is 
the minister of God to thee/or good. But 


THE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 241 

if thoU doest evil, fear; for not -without 
cause does he then bear the sword; for 
he is God’s minister, an avenger in wrath 
unto him that doeth evil. 

Hence the necessity of being subject not 
only on account of wrath , but even for 

conscience’ sake. For the same reason 

» 

also pay ye tribute. For as God’s minis¬ 
ters they are constantly accomplishing his 
purposes. Render therefore to all their 
dues—tribute to whom tribute is due, cus¬ 
tom to whom custom* fear to whom fear.’ y 
{Matt. x. 28—31 ; and Luke xii. 4—7,) 
honor to whom honor. You owe no one 
any thing, but to love one another; for 
he who loves another fulfills the law. For 
the commandment, ‘ Thou shalt not corn* 
mit adultery, thou shalt not murder, thou 
shalt not steal, thou shalt not give false 
testimony, thou shalt not covet; and 
whatever other commandment there may 
be, it is summed up in this one precept, 
that is, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as 
thyself” [O 3 Love does not injure a 



242 


THE BIBLE AGAINST WAR, 


neighbor. Therefore love is the fullness 
of the law. And obey this command, 
{especially at this time) Knowing that 
this is a critical season,* that it is time we 
were already awake from sleep, for now 
is our salvation nearer than when we be* 
lieved. The night has advanced: the day 
has approached. Let us therefore lay 
aside the works of darkness , and let us 
put on the w T hole armor of light, (Eph. vh 
10—18.) As in day light, (when all 
are looking at us) let us walk becomingly* 
not in revels and intemperance, not in 
adultery and licentiousness, nor in con- 
tention and strife. But QCf 3 Put on the 
Lord Jesus Christ , and make no provis¬ 
ion for the body to gratify its lusts.”— 
DC/ 13 See James iv. 1. 

CONCLUSION. 

We find then that the thirteenth chap* 
ter of Romans, is in harmony with othei* 
parts of the Bible. Interpreted in the 

* Translation of Dr. Bloomfield. 


THE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 243 

light of the context, the circumstances 
which called it forth, and by parallel pas¬ 
sages, it not only does not give authority 
for the use of the sword, but it positively 
forbids its use. It is not only not a strong¬ 
hold for the advocate of war, but it is a 
stronghold for the advocate of peace : we 
need no stronger. The apostle instead 
of teaching us to use the sword, is urging 
“ passive submission,” or the patient en¬ 
during of evils resulting from its use. 

OBJECTION : “ CHRIST COMMANDED HIS DIS¬ 
CIPLES to buy swords.”— Luke xxii. 38. 

With an air of triumph it is asked, 
“ Why purchase swords if forbidden to 
use them ? An important inquiry, I ad¬ 
mit. But in turn permit me to ask, if 
designed for use , how could two suffice for 
the whole? Yet when they say, “ Here 
are two swords,” the Lord replies “ It is 
enough .” Is this being “armed and 
equipped as the law directs?” Were 
some favored two to be selected as body 


244 THE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 

guards for the twelve ? Or were they 
each iu turn to use them till exhausted, then 
rest while his fellow was doing execution ? 

But laying aside all pleasantry, let us 
meet the question candidly. The Savior 
doeth all things wisely, and has good rea¬ 
sons for this, as well as for all things else 
he doeth, whether we see them or not. 
A careful examination of the context pre¬ 
sents, I think at least one good reason— 
one consistent with all his previous teach¬ 
ing and future practice. The peculiar 
circumstances in which he was placed of¬ 
fered an excellent opportunity for giving 
lessons to be long remembered. It was 
on the eve of his crucifixion, just after 
courageous Peter had “ pledged his life 
and sacred honor” in defense of his Mas¬ 
ter. “ I am ready to go with thee both 
into prison and to death” ! 

No doubt his heart beat with martial 
joy as they were enjoined to sell their 
garments and buy swords. He hastens to 
show his loyalty, and the swords are pre- 


THE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 245 


sented. Of the two we know Peter had 
one, possibly unbelieving Thomas had the 
other. Judas had previously left, or we 
should naturally expect to find it with 
him. 

Sword in hand, impatient for the onset, 
Peter inquires, “ Lord , whither goest 
Thou? * * I will lay down my life fof 

Thy sake .” The Savior institutes “ the 
Lord’s Supper,” and while at the table un¬ 
bosoms his heart in part, adding, “I have 
yet many things to say unto you, but ye 
can not bear them now.” Then leading 
them forth to Gethsemane—takes the fa* 
vored Peter, James and John, and goes 
apart for special prayer. While in the 
agony of his soul he cries, “ 0 my Father f 
if it be possible let this cup pass from me,” 
the courageous Peter was sleeping upon 
his sword, and heeded not the repeated 
warnings to “ watch and pray,” lest he 
enter into temptations. Anon an ap¬ 
proaching mob was announced; this 
arouses Peter, and he rushes forth to the 



246 THE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 

rescue—smites with the sword—looks for 
his Master’s approval, and finds the com¬ 
passionate Jesus healing the wound him¬ 
self had made ! 

Does he say to Peter, “ This is a pecu¬ 
liar case. It behoves me to suffer. Ordi¬ 
narily, when thou art attacked by ruf¬ 
fians, or thy family are in danger, pro¬ 
tect them , and stand for your rights ! ” 
Nothing of this! but “ put up thy sword 
into its place. lie that ta/ceth the sword , 
shall perish with the sword. Thinkest 
thou that I can not now pray to my Father, 
and He shall presently give me more than 
twelve legions of angels?”— Matt. xxvi. 
52, 53. Thus showing, that in the most 
extreme case it is neither safe nor Christ- 
like to trust in the sword. So Peter un¬ 
derstood it, but neither he nor the other 
disciples had yet learned how to over- 
• come evil with good ; and finding they 
could “ do nothing ,” that is, that they 
could not fight, they “all forsook Him and 
fled.” But however ignorant they then 


THE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 247 

were, when taught of the Holy Spirit, 
they preached and practised non-resist¬ 
ance, alleging that to this they were 
“called: because Christ suffered for us, 
leaving us an example , that ye should fol¬ 
low his steps .”—1 Peter ii. 20,21. Hence 
we find Christ wished them to obtain a 
sword that He might have an opportunity 
to forbid its use under circumstances that 
would never be forgotten. 

Another passage referred to is John xi. 
15, where Christ uses his scourge of small 
cords. From our translation it is natur¬ 
ally enough supposed that the Savior 
drove from the temple, men, cattle, sheep 
and fowls, en masse. But the Greek gives 
no such idea at all. The original reads 
thus : “ He drove all from the temple, that 
is, the sheep and the oxen # # and 
said to them that sold doves take these 
things hence.” Addressing the men in 
language which they understood, and 
giving them a scourge more effectual than 
small cords. 



248 THE BIBLE AGAINST WAR; 


Albert Barnes in his “notes” on this 
passage, has the following: “ This whip 

was made as an emblem of authority, and 
also for the purpose of driving from the ' 
temple the cattle which had been brought 
there for sale. There is no evidence that 
he used any violence to any of the men en¬ 
gaged in that unhallowed traffic .’ 




OBJECTION: 


u 


GOD IS CALLED A MAN OF 


WAR; 


Not for our imitation, but for bur de¬ 
fense. ; as our “Avenger.” The phrase is 
found in the song of Moses after the nota- 
hie deliverance from Pharaoh,' and has the 
same meaning as the parallel passage in 
the context—“ The Lord shall fight for 
you, and ye shall hold your peace. Fear 
ye not: stand till and see the salvation of 
the Lord.”—See Ex. xiv.* xv. 


OBJECTION l “ GOD DID GIVE FOSITIVE COM' 
MANDS TO FIGIIT,” 

He also commanded them to go into 
captivity.—At first He commanded them 


THE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 24$ 

to “ stand still and see the salvation of 
Jehovah —to follow the pillar of fire and 
cloud for protection. This was God’s 
plan which they rejected. So He sent 
them according to the ** stubbornness of 
their hearts, and bade them walk accord¬ 
ing to their own plan.” See Psalm lxxxi. 
They rejected the statutes and judgments 
by which they might live ; so He gave 
them statutes that were not good, and 
judgments by which they should not live.” 
— EzeJc . xx. They refused to comply 
with the condition on which He had 
promised to shield and protect them. 
Hence He said “Ye shall know my 
breach of promise,” or as it reads in the 
margin, “ the altering of my purpose.” 

OBJECTION: DAVID IS SAID TO BE A MAN 

AFTER GOD’S OWN HEART, AND YET HE 
WAS A MAN OS’ WAR.” 

This was said of David while he “ fol¬ 
lowed the flock,” not after he became a 
man of war. See 1 Chron. xxii. 7—10. 


250 THE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 

OBJECTION I AGAIN, IT IS URGED THAT WAR 
IS NOT INCONSISTENT WITH CHRISTIANITY 
BECAUSE CORNELIUS “ THE CENTURION,’’ 
AND “A SOLDIER” UNDER HIM ARE CALLED 
“ DEVOUT.” 

“ Likewise also was not Rahab the har¬ 
lot justified by works, when she had re¬ 
ceived the messengers, and had sent them 
out another w r ay ?”—James ii. 25. “ By 

faith the harlot Rahab perished not with 
them that believed not, when she had re¬ 
ceived the spies with peace.”— Heb. ii. 31. 
See also Josh. ii. 1; and vi. 17. But does 
this prove that licentiousness was consist¬ 
ent with Christianity?! Simon is also 
called the “leper, {Matt. xxvi. 6;) and 
Matthew “ the publican, {Matt. x. 3,) to 
designate their former condition or occu¬ 
pation. So also w r e hear of Capt. A, Col. 
B., and Gen. C., not because they are now 
to be seen in their regimentals, but as 
once they fdled these offices, they still re¬ 
tain the name. Persons would be hor¬ 
ror-stricken at the idea of having harlots 
in the church. This is as it should be, 




THE BIBLE AGAINST WAR. 251 

and shows a proper estimate of the guilt 
of that sin. We have only to acquaint 
ourselves with the abominations of war, 
and we find it as incongruous with Chris¬ 
tianity as licentiousness, and if possible 
even more so. 

These are the main reasons given as au¬ 
thority for taking the life of man in 
war. We ask, are they sufficient? 
True, we may use the sword—but it is 
44 the sword of the Spirit.” We may 
fight “ the good fight of faith.” We may 
war “ a good warfare, as good soldiers of 
Jesus Christ.” But our battle is to be 
bloodless. We are to conquer enmity by 
love. Then let us “ be strong in the Lord 
and in the power of his might. Let us 
put on the whole armor of God, that 
we may be able to stand against the wiles 
of the devil. For we wrestle not against 
flesh and blood, but against principalities, 
against powers, against the rulers of the 
darkness of this world, against spiritual 
wickedness in high places. Wherefore 


252 


THE BIBLE AGAINST WAR, 


take unto you the whole armor of God, 
that ye may be able t r withstand in the 
evil day, and having done all, to stand. 
Stand therefore, having your loins girt 
about with truth, and having on the 
breast-plate of righteousness; And your 
feet shod with the preparation of the gos¬ 
pel of peace ; Above all, taking the shield 
of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to 
quench all the fiery darts of the wicked, 
and take the helmet of salvation, and the 
sword of the Spirit, which is the word of 
God: • Praying always with all prayer 
and supplication in the Spirit, and watch¬ 
ing thereunto with all perseverance and 
supplication for all saints.” 

“ Peace, with her olives crowned, shall stretch 
Her wings from shore to shore ; 

No trump shall rouse the rage of war, 

Nor murderous cannon roar. 

Lord, for those days we wait,—those days 
Are in thy word foretold; 

Fly swifter, sun and stars, and bring 
This promised age of gold.” 























